The good part of the film is it gives the world an idea about the so-called "Re-education Camp". Ex-soldiers of South Vietnamese Army and ex-officer of Vietnamese government who were told to show up for 1 week of education ended up between a few years and 16 years in concentration camps where many died of hunger, sickness or execution. But the movie shows South Vietnamese prisoners in camp uniforms but in fact, no camp uniforms were given to prisoners. They wore in the camps what they wore when showing up for "one week of education".

But I find the format of the film is weird, it's part movie, part documentary.

I was incredibly surprised at the extremely favorable reviews after viewing this film. It doesn't help that the recent Burns/Novik film was released several months ago, eclipsing the efforts of this film. The story is epic, some of us are very familiar with the history of Vietnam from early colonial times to the present. I'm one of those people, and have spent considerable time in Vietnam, speak basic Viet, and understand the culture - so that's the caveat. The story told in this film was nothing new to me, and I mean nothing. The Burns/Novick film was refreshing, and there was new material I'd never seen, including some compelling footage gleaned from the archives in Hanoi. VC and NVA vets gave emotional interviews.... and in Vietnamese. And US vets also told their incredible stories. Ride the Thunder made some attempts at this, with a couple of interviews with US vets. Nothing from VC/NVA, or S Vietnamese. In the end, these portrayals created an awkward mix of low quality drama, and documentary lacking any real substance. It's kind of shocking, really.

This film had terrible acting. I'm sorry to have to relay this, but it was on par with a hastily made lower budget TV program, featuring extras. It took me three separate attempts to finish this movie. There were some Viet Kieu (foreign Vietnamese) actors, but I'm not sure there was a single Viet word spoken in this movie. Besides Dien Bien Phu, or Saigon, etc, lol.

If you're not up to speed on post war Vietnam following the fall of Saigon, or issues US soldiers faced back home after this terribly unpopular and foolish war, you might find this film worth your time. If you are somewhat informed, then you may find this film exceptionally cheesy and factually anemic. I'd have given it a lower score, but out of respect for the filmmakers, and their efforts to portray various perspectives, I'm not doing that. In all candor, it was a real let down.

While I didn't serve in Viet Nam, I remember that time well, and I served with people who did. This movie is a mix of docudrama and interviews with veterans. Those that pan that concept apparently don't watch much on the History Channel. Most of the negative reviews I read, if you click on the profile of the reviewer, you find that their negative review of this movie is the ONLY review they have posted. THAT should tell you that they specifically had a reason to bash this film. At least one reviewer called it political propaganda, but that's just what the TRUTH looks like when it isn't what you want to hear!

Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and their FTA group, committed treason, and they should've gone to prison for that. John Kerry did as well and instead ended up as a lousy Secretary of State who made a terrible deal with our enemies in Iran. The description of the changes in America and the predictions of John Ripley came true. We are living that today. Disputing that fact is futile. The decline of mainstream media in this country began when Walter Cronkite went to Viet Nam and came home and his editor told him to "report what he thought", not just "what he had seen". From that moment on, news reporting became propaganda.