A Bright Shining Lie - The Hell of Vietnam
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Vietnam - the last resort |
| Original title | A Bright Shining Lie |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language |
English Vietnamese |
| Publishing year | 1998 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Terry George |
| script | Terry George |
| production | Greg Ricketson |
| music | Gary Chang |
| camera | Jack Conroy |
| cut | Nicholas Beauman |
| occupation | |
| |
A Bright Shining Lie (Vietnam - The Last Rescue) is an American war film directed by Terry George from 1998. The television film is based on true events and is a film adaptation of the biography The Big Lie. John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan from 1988.
action
After defeating France, Vietnam is divided into a north and a south half. The north is controlled by the communist rebels, the south is the territory of the Vietnamese government. On March 23, 1962, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann arrived in Saigon in southern Vietnam as one of 11,000 war advisors. The USA supports the Vietnamese government in the fight against the Viet Cong .
There he met the journalist Steven Burnett from the New York Times. During his work he gradually became aware that the Vietnamese commanders were pursuing other goals and that the actual conflict with the Viet Cong was taking a back seat for the Vietnamese military. On January 2, 1963, under Vann's command, a battle broke out with the well-prepared communists at Ap Bac. The USA has suffered great losses, also because the Vietnamese soldiers are withdrawing. After he notices that the official war report converts defeat into victory and that his supervisor calls him to loyalty, he reports the truth to journalist Steven Burnett. Deeply disappointed, he puts his military career at risk. The US supplies the Vietnamese farmers with weapons, but they pass them on to the Viet Cong. Thus, in Vann's opinion, the US military is fighting against its own weapons.
A few weeks later, Vann's assignment in Vietnam ended and he returned to the USA. There he lectures on the truth of the Vietnam War and wants to win the war with the support of the South Vietnamese farmers by providing them with the staple food rice and infrastructural support. Thus the communists would have lost their base in the south. When the General Staff drops him, however, he resigns from military service. He takes a normal office job but is very unhappy and still obsessed with Vietnam. After countless requests, he was sent back to Vietnam on March 20, 1965 as head of a civil aid program. He is to look after a village there with the support of the local regional commander Dinh. Vann now has the opportunity to implement his ideas about helping the farmers. However, when there is a confrontation with Dinh, who hates the Americans and sympathizes with the Viet Cong, Dinh has the entire village razed to the ground.
Vann is recalled to Saigon as a military advisor. He has to go back home at short notice for the funeral of his unloved mother. His wife Mary Jane files for divorce because she is tired of his numerous sexual escapades. Back in Vietnam, Vann points out to General Westmoreland that there is information about a planned Saigon offensive by the Viet Cong. However, he disagrees. On January 30, 1968, open fighting actually broke out in Saigon, which the Americans were able to put down with difficulty. Vann has been rehabilitated and becomes the first civilian to command US troops with the status of general. Meanwhile, US President Nixon has ordered the withdrawal of the US military by June 1972 because the US is in a war it cannot win.
Still firmly convinced of the American victory, Vann plans an offensive in the mountains of Kontum with napalm bombs in June 1972 . After the South Vietnamese soldiers abandoned the US soldiers in battle, Vann gave orders to have their own position bombed, as the Viet Cong were a few hundred meters away. He wins a glorious victory and is honored for it. On the return flight in a helicopter to Saigon on June 9, 1972, Vann fell in a storm and died. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on June 16, 1972 .
criticism
“A warlike biopic against the backdrop of the wave of war films at the end of the 1990s. Carried by the good leading actor, the film does not shy away from the convincing action scenes and probing questions about the political background of the military conflict. "
“A true story based on Neil Sheehan's bestseller of the same name tells this captivating, enlightening and, moreover, quite action-packed Vietnam drama, the qualities of which do not have to hide behind those of a Hollywood war film from the acutely rolling WWII wave at the time, despite its TV origins (HBO) . Bill Paxton, most recently convincing as the murderous dad in "Frailty", delivers one of the most charismatic performances of his career and receives company from well-versed supporting actors. "
Web links
- A Bright Shining Lie - Hell of Vietnam in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A Bright Shining Lie in the online movie database
Individual evidence
- ↑ A Bright Shining Lie - The Hell of Vietnam. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ A Bright Shining Lie - Die Hölle Vietnames ( Memento from May 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) video.de