Heaven & Earth
Heaven & Earth
R | 25 December 1993 (USA)
Heaven & Earth Trailers

In a small Vietnamese village torn apart by war, a young woman faces unimaginable horrors before deciding to escape to the city. There, she encounters a compassionate Marine who offers her hope and a chance at a new life, igniting the possibility of a future together.

Reviews
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
SnoopyStyle Le Ly is a village girl from the country as she becomes intertwined with her country's struggle. Oliver Stone is looking at the Vietnam war from the POV of the Vietnamese. It is probably as important as his other Vietnam movies.Hiep Thi Le is a great find. She's able to give it heart and soul. It's a big job for somebody in her first big role. It's an almost impossible job.Tommy Lee Jones has a bit too much intensity. The chemistry is off to me. It's probably more real than I realize. It's a relationship that foreshadows trouble ahead. For a movie goer, I lust for that cinematic romance. But this is not that kind of movie.The last section in the States is not as compelling. It's almost a completely different movie. That's the weakness here. It's not a simple movie. It's a life story.
Joseph P. Ulibas Heaven & Earth (1993) was the final part of Oliver Stone's Viet-Nam Trilogy. The story follows a Vietnamese Peasant girl named Ly Le who's idyllic life in her village is changed forever by a civil war in her country. Both sides deal horrific atrocities against her and the rest of the village. Can Ly Le weather the storm that is the Vietnam War and keep her head up? What will happen to her village as the war gets more violent and brutal on both sides? How far can the human condition be under such extremes and still remain sane? You'll have to find out by watching this harrowing film Heaven & Earth.I really like this movie, Oliver Stone is such a masterful storyteller and the acting, directing and writing kept me on edge throughout the entire film. I have to highly recommend this film. Joan Chen (who still looks hot underneath the make-up), Tommy Lee Jones, Dr. Haing S. Ngor co-star as well.Highly recommended
agent52 A different perspective of war, and very much needed one. This story covers the lives affected by war. The male lead undergoes emotional strain while the female lead contrastingly grows strength from, or perhaps in spite of the war.The movie's subtext is thankfully never handed to you in a Hollywood-direct manner - yet the movie develops it thoroughly for the viewer. This is the most plain statement there is that war is much more than the sides of the conflict, the survivors, the wounded, the dead. And, it makes clear that the trauma caused affects many for a long long time, and for each it is their own journey.Oliver Stone is obviously a master movie maker. He is a great story teller and you are always provided a visual and sound experience like no other. This movie contains some incredibly beautiful shots which all by themselves are worth the viewing. When combined with the plot, the beauty contrasts with the brutatilty to help develop the subtext mentioned above.You might notice I have never said if I like the film. Because the subject matter makes me queasy, uneasy, I don't think I could ever say I like this. But, this is a very powerful film that got under my skin. So, here I am recognizing the movie for its message and method, not necessarily for providing me a Pavlovian reaction seeking more.Instead of plopping in another war DVD, try this one. I bet you will walk away and it will continue to live with you.
Philip Van der Veken Oliver Stone has always had a special bond with Vietnam. He is a veteran of that war and the theme about a veteran trying to cope with his war experiences is a subject that comes back in several of his movies. This is the last movie in his Vietnam trilogy. His first movie was "Platoon" (1986), his second "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) and the third one was "Heaven & Earth" (1993).In Heaven & Earth he tells the true story of a Vietnamese village girl who survives a life of suffering and hardship during and after the Vietnam war. Before she meets and marries the U.S. marine Steve Butler, she already has had an entire life behind her. She once fled for the violence of the Viet Cong, leaving her farming village for Saigon together with her mother. But soon she disgraced herself by becoming pregnant with her new master's child and as an unmarried mother, she tried to make a living by being a freedom fighter, a hustler and sometimes a prostitute. As soon as they are married, they move to the USA, but life on the other side of the ocean certainly isn't as perfect as she imagined it to be...Some people say that it is a good thing that Oliver Stone has finally made a movie that shows the Vietnamese perspective of the war and I agree, but only to a certain extend. It's true that we only get to see movies that show the American side of the story and that we need other movies that give us a broader view on the matter, but "Heaven & Earth" isn't the only 'reversed' Vietnam film. Perhaps not many people know this, but the French movie "Indochine" (1992) does approximately the same. The main difference with "Heaven & Earth" is that it doesn't talk about the 'American' period, but about the French colonial period that proceeded it and in which time the Vietnam war really started (The French had almost lost all their battles when the Americans came to help them and thereby got completely stuck into the war themselves...). But it is true, Oliver Stone has done a nice job with this movie. He has made it an interesting character study, with the war always present in the background. The acting is very good and I don't think there could have been a better actor than Tommy Lee Jones to play the role of Major Steve Butler. The other actors all did a good job too, in fact, I might say that Stone has had an excellent cast to work with and he probably got the most and the best out of them.If there is one lesser point to this movie, although only a small one, than it must be the language. The Vietnamese all start by speaking almost perfect English to each other, but when they speak to Americans their English is poor, yet when they speak to each other in front of an American its in Vietnamese. I believe it would have been better if Stone had chosen to let the Vietnamese speak their own language all the time and to speak with an accent when speaking to the Americans. But as I already said, I only see this as a minor detail and it certainly didn't spoil the good times that I had with this movie. This is an underrated movie that deserves to be seen by a great audience. I give it a 7.5/10 at least, perhaps even an 8/10.