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The story centres on a young Vietnamese girl who grows up
in a small village that is caught in the military and idealogical
struggle between Communism and the West in Vietnam.
Hiep Thi Le is terrific as the young woman who loves her
family and village, but is raped by the Viet Cong and forced
away to Saigon to make her living as best as she can.
Haing (Killing Fields) Ngor plays her father and Joan
(Twin Peaks) Chen is her traditional - and at times
- horrid mother.
In Saigon, Le Ly is seen and wooed by an American soldier
- Tommy Lee Jones - falls in love and then goes back to America
with him and their children.
Once again, Jones is wonderful. He is nice, charming, explosive
and deranged, suffering from the aftershocks of post combat
stress and nightmares about what he did as a special operative.
His mental condition takes its toll on the relationship and
Le Ly finds herself forced to bring her children up by herself.
Heaven and Earth is an absorbing piece of the Stone
trilogy and is one you really should watch.
It shows how the villagers of Vietnam were stuck right in
the middle of the war and got hammered by both sides.
It also closes the circle of experience on Vietnam and rounds
out the series very well indeed.
The story is strong, but the eye-catching part is the photography,
which is superb.
The landscapes and scenery of the Vietnamese village, in
particular, are just breath taking. If you saw the first two,
see the finale.
Well done, Oliver.
Conclusion: Movie 85%, Extras 70%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
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