Product Description

ONE MAN'S STORY THROUGH A DECADE OF WAR, VILLAGES TAKEN AND LOST, LOVERS TAKEN AND LOST, THE TRUTH CORRUPTED, LIVES DESTROYED AND SAVED. THIS IS THE STORY OF A MAN TRANSFORMED ASBRUTALLY AS THE WAR TRANSFORMED TWO NATIONS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21300 in DVD
• Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 1998-12-22
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com
Based on Neil Sheehan's controversial book about the making of the Vietnam war, this HBO production is told from the perspective of Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann (Bill Paxton), one of the original military advisers sent in 1962 to prop up the fledgling South Vietnamese army against the Viet Cong. Battle-ready and enthusiastic upon his arrival, Vann quickly learns that political and social pressures are causing the South Vietnamese to doctor evidence of their victories and local military brass to take undeserved credit for overhyped battles. As the propaganda draws America ever deeper into a war most people clearly don't understand, Vann takes issue with the corruption and finds his career in tatters--only the beginning of a long journey that piles tragedies upon ironies. Written and directed by Terry George (Some Mother's Son), A Bright Shining Lie has a somewhat rushed and brittle quality to it, made all the more dry by passages from Sheehan's book read, documentary-style, by Donal Logue. But George also makes a case for Vann's more blatant personal contradictions--such as the casualness of his womanizing when he so clearly loves his wife (Amy Madigan)--that only grow as years pass and political myths supporting the war fold over onto themselves. (Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, more or less played in this film by Eric Bogosian, has taken issue with this depiction of Vann's character.) Sustaining the whole project is Paxton's focused, thoughtful performance, and an enduring public hunger to know just what it was that happened in Vietnam. On both counts, the film is well worth seeing. The DVD includes cast bios, English and Spanish audio tracks, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Excellent Vietnam-era movie
HBO Films presents this biopic of John Paul Vann, taken from the book of the same name. Vann was a former US army soldier who became a civilian leader of the war effort on behalf of South Vietnam. In addition to detailing the military actions that Vann is involved in, the film also expertly describes the many failings of Vann's personal life. Some people have criticized this film for being of the low-budget, made for TV variety. To the contrary, I think that this film was done quite well for a cable film. Of course, HBO is known for producing top-notch original films.

The only beef I have with this movie is not production-related, nor is it expressed in the book, but exhibits what I feel is the bias of the director or screenwriter. The film explicitly implies that JFK was innocent of the war, and that, immediately following his assassination, LBJ instantly accelerated the war to mammoth proportions. The truth is significantly more complicated, but liberal Hollywood-types are well known for their honoring of JFK and distaste of LBJ. This political propaganda aside, this really is an excellent film about a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

Decent little known Nam movie...
I read all the reviews that were submitted...interesting. Valid points include that this film attempts to follow the tumultous life of a man of uncomprimising nature as well as an uncanny military genius w/ mixed success. Less credible are the Vann's "grandson" comments on his distain for interracial sexual relations(?), and "there's not enough action". Many Vietnam movies tend to focus on the extremes of human emotion and visceral narration (i.e grunts, fighter jocks, spec. ops. etc). If you are seeking the emotional impact and bullet time of Platoon or Apocalypse Now you won't find it here.

This movie focuses on the broader issues of the conflict, South Vietnamese corruption, U.S military leaders' ineptitude in combating guerilla warfare, and the evolution of the press affecting American sentiment toward to the long course of war. Corrupt South Vietnamese cadre, themselves products of colonialism, whose elitism pushed to average Vietnamese into the waiting arms of the communists. Also the single-mindness of the US military is clearly evident, even when their continual losses revealed their flawed strategy. General Westmoreland is portrayed as a over-conficent and narrow-minded man unaccepting of his subordinates advice. If this seems inaccurate, just watch his opinated comments in the Hearts and Minds documentary. Its seems poor Vann is the only man w/ the right ideas in a world full of officers still fighting WWII. His career is shattered because he wouldn't back down in a military system where you don't challenge your commanders. In the end, Vann finally gets his props and realizes his potential, but it was too late...American public had enough of Vietnam.

I wouldn't review this movie on its accuracy on the book or the man, this is told as a story of a man who personified the conflicted nature of the American side of the conflict. In the beginning Vann wants to fight the war w/ a conscience but as it gets uglier you see his character begin to solidify into a consumate fighter only wanting to win at any cost. His inability to compromise and adapt to a world changing much faster than him eventually consumes him.

Overall, the film breaks new ground into Nam movies by showing an abbreviated evolution of the conflict, the workings of the US brass, and the nasty underlying issues that made that conflict so controversial w/out beating you over the head. I wouldn't compare it to other blockbuster movies on Vietnam...if only this movie was given their huge budget and screen time.

Eye-opener
I first watched this movie five years ago on HBO, and to be honest, this film inspired me to read the book, though it would take me four long years to find it.

ABSL focuses on the life of one of the most signficant, yet unrecognized in the mainstream, figures of the Vietnam War: Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, USA.

Just like the novel, the movie starts off at the funeral, then proceeds to Vann's arrival in Vietnam in March 1962. He begins to devote time advising his Vietnamese counterpart, Col. Nguyen Van Cao, played by Singaporean actor Lim Kay Tong. Vann feels something is not right when the South Vietnamese fake the VC body counts and deduce that they have no stomach for fighting the Communists-they only want to protect the Diem regime. The Battle of Ap Bac would later make the Americans and South Vietnamese begin paying for such errors in blood, as it's aftermath jacks up the war to a new level...

The film mostly focuses on the action in Vietnam. Bill Paxton portrayed the role of Vann quite well, as a father, husband, and officer. He was able to add color to his role as his Vann character gets screwed over by the military leadership over the conduct of the war, and his troubles at home. His sexual hijinks with Lee the schoolteacher and Annie the naive schoolgirl are also in the movie.

If General Westmoreland was really that arrogant in Vietnam, Kurtwood Smith did a fine job playing him.

Lim Kay Tong's Singaporean accent is evident in his role as Colonel Cao, unless the Vietnamese really speak that way.

It's obvious that there were errors in the movie that I would later discover in the novel-names changed and all of that. Vann was not there when the first Buddhist monk committed suicide by fire, for example.

The film also has original video footage of the war spliced into it, particularly those taken during the Tet Offensive-even including the famous footage of a VC spy shot point-blank by a Southern police colonel.

I never gave the Vietnam War a real in-depth look, until I watched this movie. Good thing I read the book it was based on-it filled a lot of gaps the movie obviously had.