Product Description

THE DETERMINATION OF AMERICAN CAPTIVES IN HANOI'S HAO LO PRISON TO SURVIVE THROUGH THE TURBULENT YEATS OF THE VIETNAM WAR IS DRAMATIZED IN THIS POIGNANT DEPICTION.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42978 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2008-11-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Vietnamese
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 125 minutes

Amazon.com
Based on interviews conducted with more than 100 former prisoners of war, The Hanoi Hilton captures the brutal and tedious life in a prison camp during the Vietnam War. Though released around the same time as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, The Hanoi Hilton didn't have the same impact, partly because it was an independent film and couldn't afford the same production values, but also because its perspective was much narrower. This movie avoids grappling with the larger questions of the Vietnam War, instead throwing its support whole-heartedly behind the P.O.W.s and veering into jingoism as a result. (When a Cuban officer arrives to assist the Viet Cong, his wickedness is so swaggering he comes across as the villain in a cheesy melodrama.) But when the movie focuses on the decency and suffering of the men themselves, its compassion and outrage are undeniable, and the performances--particularly that of Michael Moriarty (Law & Order)--are moving. An interview with Senator John McCain, a former P.O.W. himself, accompanies the film; this was conducted while he was running for president and feels, regrettably, like little more than a promotional effort for his candidacy. The men in the film deserve a more candid and searching discussion of their struggles. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

The Hanoi Hilton
I was in the Air Force during the war and have over 100 combat missions. This is the most accurate presentation of the war that is available. It is a story that needed telling and still needs to be told. It describes the situation of the American prisoners in Vietnam in an accurate and truthfull manner. Everyone should see it.

The Horrors Of Hoa Lo Prison And Of Enemy Disinformation
The Hanoi Hilton angered a lot of reviewers upon its 1987 release. The New Republic launched its exceptionally vicious review of the film by calling it "filth." Other reviewers howled in protest by calling the film "one-sided," "virulent," and so forth.

Such reviews only confirm James Bowman's point about the idiotic film Kids, namely that the movie reviewing community consists of the most gullible people in the world, people who would never think to challenge the assumptions they want to see confirmed in the movies they review.

It confirms this point because what the denunciations of The Hanoi Hilton really reflect is the film's commitment to truth.

The film is about Hoa Lo prison, one of the most brutal POW prisons in history. North Vietnam not only tortured and killed prisoners, it used them as propaganda tools, and enlisted the aid of Westerners to spread disinformation about Hanoi and its war aims.

The film captures such disinformation actions in two crucial scenes; early on, an Australian TV journalist (based on the real life journalist Wilfred Burchette, who aided Communist forces all over the world and participated in the torture of American pilots in both Korea and Vietnam) openly in league with the Communists does a piece on a prisoner who steadfastly refuses to go along with the colossal fraud being permeated about Communist benevolence. The Aussie gripes at the prison commandant (Aki Akeong) about the POW's uncooperative attitude.

Later, an American film actress and her husband (based on Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden) greet the POWs and ask them to sign an apology "to the women and children you bombed." Of course they did no such thing, and tell her off on it.

Nonetheless she wins the release of a few prisoners, much to the contempt of almost all of them. This is one of the film's major themes; one goes, we all go, as is repeatedly told by the POWs to the prison commandant.

Eventually the POWs are released upon the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, and celebrate having outlasted the enemy as they take off for freedom.

The film's superb cast, tremendous attention to detail (the sets were built through extensive consultatition with men who were imprisoned in Hoa Lo), and Lionel Chetwynd's flawless direction make for a chilling story.

The Hanor Hilton
This movie shows what terrrible hardships these prisoners had to endure. I had the priviladge to talk to one of the wives of these heros and she confirmed a lot of events shown in this movie. Also stated that she was not allowed to even mention that her husband was shot down for six-months. Tell her that this movie was "too long and over emotional"!! Most americans just did not want to face reality during this sad time in our Country's history. I was there during 1966-1968 and in Sigon 1970.