HEAVEN AND EARTH
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A true chronicle of forty years in the
life of a Vietnamese woman whose country and whose life are
torn apart by the war. For once Oliver Stone recognizes that
it wasn't just the Americans committing atrocities in the
war. And subtly, he also seems to argue with the main
character of the film. I like this the best of Stone's
Vietnam films. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
Film critics seem to be asking themselves what went wrong with the third film in Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy. After two films they loved he has failed in his third. Frankly, I do not understand their reaction. For my money the other two films have much greater flaws than HEAVEN AND EARTH. Perhaps because this film is told from the point of view of a Vietnamese, I think it gives a much better view of what the war was all about. For once in a film that this was not a war in which just Americans were to blame, there is plenty of blame to go around to all involved. It is a powerful view of the dilemmas faced by the Vietnamese people. This true story has the sweep of forty years of turbulent history filled with tragedy and horror.
When Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le) remembers her home when she was a little girl she remembers it as the most beautiful village in the world. And it certainly appears to be. We see an almost idyllic life of hard work and spiritual joy. Then the French come to Vietnam to fight a war, but it still seems to affect the village little until some Vietcong come to recruit soldiers. Their simple appeal for national unity wins the sympathy of village for Vietcong. Against her father's wishes, Le Ly's mother sends her two sons to fight with the Vietcong. That sets into motion a course of events that will shape the next forty years of Le Ly's life. The South Vietnamese army suspect Le Ly's family of sympathies with the North and arrest and torture Le Ly in some extremely harrowing scenes. Le Ly's mother bribes the South Vietnamese officials to release Le Ly only to see her arrested by the Vietcong for suspected complicity with the South. The Vietcong, she finds, are little if any better than the South Vietnamese government. A short stint as a servant in a rich household leaves her pregnant and penniless, and she must turn to the streets of Da Nang to earn her living. Eventually she will fall in love with an American soldier who will marry her and take her to California where her life's tragedies will continue. Perhaps there is where the critics are disliking the film since the American household melodrama falls into cliche, but even there it is the tragedy of the war that pursues her.
HEAVEN AND EARTH is based on Le Ly Hayslip's two autobiographies WHEN HEAVEN AND EARTH CHANGED PLACES and CHILD OF WAR, WOMAN OF PEACE. It is ironic that in this story of how a Vietnamese woman is exploited and abused, Hiep Thi Le, who plays Le Ly and who must be on-screen for more than 90% of the film gets only fourth billing. Top billing goes to Tommy Lee Jones who certainly does a fine job as Le Ly's disturbed husband, but it really is Hiep Thi Le's film. Second and third billing go to Joan Chen and Haing S. Ngor as Le Ly's parents.
The photography of the Vietnamese countryside is just spectacular making Le Ly's claim of the most beautiful village believable. Creative, if gimmicky, camerawork is also used to show Le Ly's first reactions to her new American home with its pandemonium from the family dogs and its huge refrigerator stocked from a grocery aisle that looks like a fjord. The score by the Japanese composer Kitaro is a little overpowering at times, but the music by itself is actually quite good.
There are definitely unexpected touches in the script. Late in the film Le Ly herself gives in to a Buddhist belief in not challenging fate but just going with it, yet clearly the film shows her agony at being buffeted by fate without fighting it. Each time she does take a step to fight her apparent fate she gains a new set of problems but each time they seems less painful than the situation she is escaping. When she returns to the village at the end of the film, she is deciding it may have been better to submit to fate, but it is clear that she has improved her state a great deal in some ways over what it would have been had she stayed in the village. It is almost as if Stone--who wrote the screenplay as well as directed--is subtly arguing with the real Le Ly. It is clear also that Stone does not care so much for the Buddhist priests that Le Ly goes to for advice casting at least one as a charlatan.
Overall I found this story moving and at times wrenching. In spite of some negative reactions by some of the critics I think that Oliver Stone has made his best film about Vietnam. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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