Phrase "American imperialism" became fashionable only very recently, but similar phrase - "American cultural imperialism" was something few people, at least outside USA, hesitated to use. Probably the best example of American cultural imperialism is the way people's perception of the last century is modelled by American films. Whenever someone thinks of Vietnam War as tragedy, the first association is huge black wall in Washington D.C. Few people bother to think about people for whom that conflict was "American War". One of few American filmmakers aware of this fact was Oliver Stone, and his 1993 epic Heaven & Earth told the tale of Vietnam War from Vietnamese point of view.
Protagonist of the film is Le Ly (played by Hiep Thi Le), young woman who grew up in idyllic Vietnamese where people used to live in perfect harmony with nature. But their harmonious life was crushed when the village became the battleground in the conflict between Communist Vietcong guerillas and pro-American South Vietnamese government. Le Ly was caught in the crossfire, being abused by both sides - tortured by government officials for being Vietcong sympathiser only to be raped by Vietcong soldiers for her alleged betrayal. Her mother sends her to Saigon where she take job at rich household only to get pregnant by the young master of the house Being thrown to the streets by her jealous wife, Le Ly survives as street hustler and part-time prostitute until she meets Steve Butler (played by Tommy Lee Jones), American soldier who would marry her and bring her to USA. At first, Le Ly is in awe of American wealth and living standard, but soon Steve begins showing his bad side and Le Ly realises that the biggest battle of her life is just about to begin.
It is quite easy to understand what brought Oliver Stone to take real- life story of Le Ly for his concluding segment of his so-called Vietnam Trilogy. The fate of that woman was in many ways similar to the fate of her country - being torn between opposing forces of Cold War and suffering immeasurable losses and indescribable humiliations. Aware that his own personal traumas of Vietnam veteran pale in comparison with the sufferings of that woman, Stone approached this material with great respect, and that respect reflects in his directorial style, which is more conventional and straightforward; instead of bombarding the audience with "cool" symbolic images, Stone allows characters to tell the tale and make their point. In doing so, he enjoyed support of few quite capable actors. Relatively unknown Hiep Thi Le was very convincing in the very demanding role of Le Ly. Late Haing S. Ngor was also very effective in his role of Le Ly's father, while Joan Chen should be commended for playing role of Le Ly's mother - endeavour that required that she looked least glamorous. Tommy Lee Jones could have made great job with his role of Steve, but transformation of that character from the knight in shining armour to abusing wreck is not very convincing, although Oliver Stone's screenplay bears most of responsibility for that. The music soundtrack is not as good as it should have been - theme written by Japanese musician Kitaro didn't mix very well with Randy Miller's more conventional score. However, despite those flaws, Heaven & Earth is very interesting, thought provoking and emotionally engaging film - something that was obviously made with a lot of heart and films of that kind are rare in today's cynical world.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 17th 2003)
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