The Forgotten
The Forgotten
| 26 April 1989 (USA)
The Forgotten Trailers

Based on a story by Vietnam veteran Paul Staples, the film concerns six American Green Berets, held for 17 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. They are finally released in secret, during a delicate trade-talk session between Vietnam and the United States. Captain Tom Watkins, the ex-prisoners' CO, begins to suspect that government-man Adam Roth, who is in charge of the debriefing, may be pursuing a hidden agenda that will result in the early deaths of Watkins and the five men under his command.

Reviews
Konterr Brilliant and touching
TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
GUENOT PHILIPPE I have always been astonished by the way the Americans can face their own history past and errors. This TV movie makes no exception to this rule. The screenwriters don't hesitate to talk about the CIA manipulating, using their own men; and there were batches of films speaking of this. I won't repeat the plot line, the other users have already done it, but I think somewhere of MANDCHURIAN CANDIDATE and - in some sequences of flash backs in POW camps - of DEER HUTER. In France, you won't see many films pointing out Algeria war and all "dirty affairs" the french government directed against Arab leaders and population and also OAS members;not speaking of its implication with the underworld, through the S.A.C organization. See for instance Ben Barka assassination affair. Only in 2005 a film was made about it, even if Yves Boisset gave us L'ATTENTAT in 1972. But that is another comment.
dinky-4 There's usually something a bit distasteful about movies which exploit the notion that American POWs were (and perhaps still are) being held in Vietnam after the end of American involvement there. This movie is no exception though it has a good cast and its earnest quality tends to soften the edges of its questionable material.And like most POW movies, this one feels compelled to include some torture scenes. In fact, there's a whole smorgasbord of them. We see Keith Carradine, stripped to the waist, tied in a chair where he's threatened with a gun and slapped around by an Vietnamese interrogator. Then we see Michael Champion's head pushed backward over a tub of water while a flowing water-hose is forced into his mouth. Next Richard Lawson gets bamboo shoved under his fingernails followed by Steven Railsback being whipped across his bare torso while hanging upside-down. It's as if the Vietnamese had a separate torture for each POW!(Apparently they forgot about the sack containing a hungry rat which was tied over Chuck Norris' head in "Missing in Action" or the electric generator whose wires were attached to David Anthony Smith's nipples in "The Hanoi Hilton." Watching Smith writhe in agony with each turn of the generator's crank while his tormentors giggled in delight is perhaps the ultimate in these scenes.)Most of the actors give a better effort than the script deserves but top honors go to William Lucking.
Sic Coyote But the movie is still quite enjoyable. Some soldiers from Vietnam have just been released from being POWs, now they are back and safe, or are they? They are all questioned and interrogated about a secret mission which they are suspected of being involved in, it's a bit obvious what the mission was going to have involved but it kept me watching for the details. The acting was substantial, except for the German wife of one of the soldiers who had a bad accent saying 'z' instead of 'th' "Zey will kill zem".All in all it's okay as a tv movie but not up to theatrical standards they isn't a whole lot there it all runs along fine but it just could have done with more meat to it. Also the ending just makes me feel that they had run out of money(or ideas) and just had to end the film.