ridiculous rating

Fantastic!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

When an occupying army gives up, and retreats, the immediate consequences are always going to be worst for those of the indigenous population who collaborated with the outgoing forces. For years, the United States helped keep South Vietnam independent from the north; once the U.S. troops had departed, re-unification was inevitable and eventually, the remaining Americans evacuated themselves, taking with them just some of the Vietnamese who had worked or fought for them and who now faced an uncertain future under a communist regime. Indeed, with the North VIetnamese forces on the edges of Saigon, the only way the evacuation could be staged was by helicopter, leading to extraordinary scenes all captured on film, and re-lived in this documentary. Having gotten in this mess, it's hard to see what the U.S. government could have done differently; with hindsight, of course, the whole story of U.S. involvement in Vietnam is a dreadful mistake. There's a vividness to the film clips, and to the recollections of those involved, which makes Rory Kennedy's film a particularly personal and intimate representation of the war as a whole. What doesn't need stressing is the totality of the defeat suffered by the U.S., an event that has arguably infused U.S. politics to this day.

This documentary was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature, losing to Citizenfour. There will be spoilers ahead:Using a combination of archival footage, news reports, still photos and interviews with participants in the events, including then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and then-Special Forces Richard Armitage, this documentary offers an in-depth chronicle of the evacuation of US personnel, US civilians and South Vietnamese ahead of the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese in April of 1975.The documentary starts with the ceasefire and withdrawal of combat forces by the US in 1973, with the expectation of a lasting peaceful, if uneasy, co-existence between North and South Vietnam. With the resignation of Richard Nixon in August of 1974, North Vietnam begins to become more belligerent towards South Vietnam, finally invading in late 1974/early 1975.Then-President Ford's attempts to secure additional aid for South Vietnam failed, but they would only have delayed the inevitable collapse. By April of 1975, it was obvious to most that the end was near.The bulk of this documentary chronicles the efforts to evacuate as many Vietnamese, along with US personnel, before the fall of South Vietnam completely to the advancing North Vietnamese army. It covers the efforts of many US diplomats, operatives and military to help those they worked with or, in many cases, wives, girlfriends and children, to flee the country for safety. Thousands of Vietnamese were evacuated in various ways. Some got out on the last airplanes to leave, but the documentary covers mainly those leaving by ship and by helicopter. It details official evacuations and just plain desperate efforts by Vietnamese pilots to get their families out.The archival footage and news reports are fascinating, but the heart of this documentary is in the interviews with people involved in the last days in Vietnam-from CIA operatives and embassy staff and Marines guarding the embassy to naval officers on ships receiving evacuees and escaped Vietnamese and a few who hoped to be rescued but for various reasons weren't. Often, their words are accompanied by footage, still photos or models of the US embassy compounds, which makes their comments all the more moving.Even though it becomes clear that mistakes were made in deciding when to evacuate and that there was a kind of "tunnel vision" in place which likely made things more desperate and chaotic than it needed to be, everyone in here is treated quite fairly and no one is scapegoated, which would have been very easy to do in one or two cases. Under the circumstances, things actually went reasonably well. Could things have been handled more expeditiously? Certainly, but that's 20/20 hindsight at this point.This is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and for download and is well worth getting/watching. Most recommended.

We were made aware of the documentary through our friendship with artist Binh Pho, one of the Vietnamese left behind in the embassy. He had shared his story many years ago and I had read his biography of how he escaped from Vietnam by Kevin Wallace; RIVER OF DESTINY. He told us about meeting with Rory Kennedy and his admiration for the Kennedy family. It was exciting to hear that he would be sharing some of his story in different places throughout the film. When it came to Dallas we went to the showing and we were taken back to our teenage years and all of the news and drama that Vietnam brought to our country. Seeing the real tragedy of what took place was very tense to watch. Living in the USA is such a blessing that so many of us take for granted, but shouldn't.

A couple hours ago, I saw an interesting tweet. It seems that the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Last Days in Vietnam" is now available to watch for free online. Is there a catch? Yep. You need to live in the United States to view this film from Public Broadcasting. Once I learned that this film was financed by PBS and is part of their "American Experience" series, I was a bit surprised however. After all, these films are shown on television here in the States-- so they are not usually eligible for Oscar consideration, though they have received numerous awards such as the Emmy due to their exceptional quality. Apparently, a few "American Experience" films have been shown in theaters (most likely as part of a film festival) and that is why some have been eligible for the Academy Award. In fact, this is the fourth "American Experience" film to be nominated for the Oscar. "Last Days in Vietnam" is about the fall of South Vietnam for the North's forces in the Spring of 1975. And, because it's an American Experience film, it's told from the viewpoint of Americans as well as some of their South Vietnamese allies. However, this does not mean it will not be interesting to everyone. The story is compelling and you really don't need to be an American or Vietnamese in order to appreciate the story. It's an interesting topic as folks today really don't talk about this period in history and when I was teaching American history, our curriculum rarely talked about the South falling to the Communist forces in the North. Like a typical "American Experience" film it's told through lots and lots of interviews as well as stock footage as well as some computer models. It does not have narration--and I actually enjoyed this because instead of talking about what occurred, it lets people who were there explain it in their own words. And, like a typical show in the series, it's exceptionally well made and very interesting. It's clearly a very well made film. However, I would say that it's not necessarily better than any of the other shows in the series, as they are almost always exceptionally well made .So should this win the Oscar? Probably not, as I still prefer "Virunga"--and recommend you see it as well as "Last Days in Vietnam". I should also note that I have not yet seen two of the nominees, "CitzenFour" and "Salt of the Earth"--as finding these documentaries is not always easy. Hopefully I'll get to these before the awards are nominated and I'll update you on my recommendations.Here is the link. I have been told that it will only be available to see online for a limited time--so get to it as soon as you can: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365417082/