THE PLOT THUS FAR
Their story is in danger of being lost to history. The men who came home from the Vietnam War represent a second silent generation. These are the men who won every battle in a lost war. Using the same experiential approach to storytelling as WWII in HD, HISTORY gives these veterans a voice. Through a collection of color Vietnam footage never seen by the public from private collections, museums, the US government, veteran’s and news organizations as well as sources from Vietnam, they tell their stories and relive their struggles, courage and fears. This six-hour miniseries spans the massive initial troop build-up in 1965 to the fall of Saigon a decade later. Sound design, using popular music from that era, powerfully evokes the time period and experience.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
The basic narrative presentation recounts the stories of 13 men and women, and we see the war unravel from their perspective. From soldiers, to medical personnel, to reporters, to those on the homefront–this covers a myriad of individual experiences while highlighting key components and chapters of the war itself.
The thing about Vietnam is that once you start discussing the controversies and what we now know to be untruths, it is a discussion without end, full of passion and short on facts, not because of the people discussing it but because the whole thing was based upon a twenty year series of lies and deceptions on the part of the governments involved. Wherever there are lies there will always be arguments, and the subject of the Vietnam war is proof positive of this on a massive scale. This series did not attempt to take any of that on, and wisely so. Though at times I found this irritating — for instance, the neutral announcement of the events in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 as legal cause for Johnson’s escalation, when we now know that at least one of the incidents never happened.
The Blu-Ray comes with no special features due to the sheer length of the documentary spread across two discs. However, the higher bitrate allows for reference quality DTS-HD 5.1 audio and a superb transfer. The 1080p transfer is pretty good, even though we go through various film stocks. However, the interview sections are rather bland. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
