A Bright Shining Lie
by Terry George
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Product details
Actor: Amy Madigan, Bill Paxton, Donal Logue, Eric Bogosian, Vivian WuDirector: Terry George
Cinematographer: Jack Conroy
Writer: Terry George
Editor: Laurie Butler
Producer: Greg Ricketson
Producer: James Bigwood
Producer: Lois Bonfiglio
Writer: Neil Sheehan
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 118 minutes
Release Date: 1999-06-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Hbo Home Video
Studio: Hbo Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of A Bright Shining Lie
Movie Review: Better Than Many of This Genre
Summary: 3 Stars
HBO might be well regarded for its films but this one falls short for me partly because of weak production values and a TV-like pace.
No director can expect to adequately depict a decade from this ever-shifting conflict in a running time of 118 minutes. Events have been conflated to such an extent that they can be manipulated to force a message onto the viewer. In fact, this is what happens. There are too many manufactured moments of angst, too many little soap box speeches minus the soap box, and too much contrived dialogue. In particular, I found the reporter to be poorly cast. Both his appearance and tone seem more like a graduate student than a combat reporter. If you are already inclined to believe the war was wrong, or a wasted effort, than you will enjoy this reconfirmation. If like me you see the conflict in grays and have in addition an insider's knowledge of the military landscape, you will probably find the film wanting.
I give the director credit for including Vann's family, although his children get short shrift and his wife's character is not fully fleshed out. Vann's love affair, if you can rightly call it that, with the Vietnamese teacher (played by a Taiwanese actress) is too abruptly consummated, which makes me uneasy given what the typical response of an educated Southeast Asian would be in similar circumstances.
Nonetheless, Paxton's performance is convincing if not riveting. I also was glad to see the focus on the pacification and "hearts and mind" campaign, especially in the first part of the film. This has been neglected terrain in other films of this genre.
I recommend you rent rather than buy this film only because it doesn't strike me as warranting the status of, say, a film like the one Gibson made on the war. It's also, as other reviewers have pointed out, a very uneven recreation of the book from which it derives.
Movie Review: A Bright Shining Lie
Summary: 5 Stars
OUTSTANDING!!!!!!! (BEEN THERE,DID THAT FOR MY COUNTRY,SANS THE SEX)... it only left out our return home and being LABELED BABY-KILLERS!Movie Review: what went wrong?
Summary: 4 Stars
Bill Paxton is the anchor column of this lean HBO film, but the best acting comes courtesy of Donal Logue as the reporter whom Paxon's Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann befriends early on and Ed Lauter as General Weyand. There is some very stiff work from other members of the cast, but the film succeeds on the strength of the drama it portrays.
The story of what went wrong for the US operation in Vietnam is still amenable to two or three widely differing explanations, each of which has deep plausibility. LIE portrays Paxton's character understanding the nationalist nature of the communist insurrection early on when he was posted to Viet Nam as one of the United States' first military advisors there. Gradually, however, he becomes lulled into the failed ambition to solve 'Vietnam's problem' by military means as he rises to the opportunity to become 'America's warrior' over against North Vietnam's brilliant General Giap.
In spite of some contrived work, the realism of the film's subject matter is underscored by the use of some remarkable footage from the era, including tape from the astonishing Tet Offensive in 1968. Although this Viet Cong vie for the cities during the lull of the Vietnam New Year celebration was for them a military failure, it shook whatever American confidence in the enterprise remained at that date and brought high American casualty counts and images of brutal urban warfare into American living rooms.
BRIGHT SHINING LIE is a vital film for those of us who still want to understand the American failure in Vietnam, the origins of the conflict, and how best to assure that future military interventions begin with and are sustained by a comprehension of the facts on the ground and just how malleable they may or may not be.
Movie Review: John Paul Vann Understood the Big Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
I am probably interpreting A Bright Shining Lie in a manner not intended by the film makers. One senses that they thought John Paul Van was a well meaning but delusional individual. Our involvement in Vietnam was supposedly wrong and caused more grief than good. Nothing could be further from the truth. This war hero clearly saw the corruption within the Vietnamese government and military. He also realized our top officials were often incompetent. Nonetheless, General Van rightfully despised Communist aggression. Demanding perfection, is more often than not, the enemy of the good. These totalitarian monsters had to be stopped. Would the war have turned out differently had he lived a few more years? Sadly, we will never know. Bill Paxton is superb as our highly flawed but steadfast warrior. The immature journalist is admirably played by Donal Logue. This particular character will likely turn your stomach every time he is in a scene. The Communists were victorious because of our "antiwar" media. May God forgive them---because I won't. A Bright Shining Light is not quite a five star production, but it's worthy of four and a half stars. Make sure you see it.
David Thomson
Flares into Darkness
Movie Review: A Bright Shining Lie
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a wonderful movie that told all about Vietnam and the horrors of war. Recommend for PG13
Summary of A Bright Shining Lie
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. --Tom KeoghFighting the System Video
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