Movie · 1993 · History, War, Drama · 2h 20m · R · English
Curator score: 3.6/10 (22.5K ratings)
Lasting victories are won in the heart.
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.6/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.35/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Oliver Stone
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Alcor Films, Ixtlan Productions, New Regency Pictures, Todd-AO
Cast
Hiep Thi Le, Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Haing S. Ngor, Debbie Reynolds, Conchata Ferrell, Dustin Nguyễn, Vivian Wu, Robert John Burke, Timothy Carhart, Long Nguyen, Thuan K. Nguyen, Thuan Le, Mai Le Ho, Dale Dye, Tim Guinee, Michael Paul Chan, Liem Whatley, Le Ly Hayslip, Tai Thai
Curator Review
Verdict
A serious, often forceful Vietnam War drama that shifts the conflict into the perspective of a Vietnamese woman, which gives it real value and a distinctive moral center. It is also uneven: the melodrama can feel heavy-handed, the structure is broad and episodic, and the film’s emotional ambition sometimes outruns its dramatic control.
Best for
Viewers interested in Vietnam War stories from a Vietnamese civilian perspective
Fans of Oliver Stone’s confrontational anti-war filmmaking
Audiences who don’t mind melodrama in historical drama
People looking for a large-scale, politically charged 1990s prestige drama
Skip if
You want a tightly structured, character-driven war film
You’re sensitive to graphic wartime brutality and sexual violence
You prefer subtle, restrained storytelling over overt emotion
You’re looking for a conventional romance or inspirational survival story
Overview
Heaven & Earth is the most unusual entry in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam cycle because it moves the lens away from American soldiers and toward a Vietnamese woman whose life is shattered by war. That perspective gives the film real force, especially when it connects personal trauma to the larger machinery of colonialism, occupation, and cultural dislocation.
Worth noting
The film is ambitious and sincere, but also unwieldy. Stone leans hard into operatic emotion, and the result can feel both powerful and awkward: brutal in its violence, yet occasionally overcooked in its sentiment. Still, the scale of the suffering and the insistence on a Vietnamese viewpoint make it more than a standard war drama.
Bottom line
If you respond to politically charged historical epics and don’t mind a rough-edged, melodramatic approach, it has enough conviction to be worth a look. If you want elegance or restraint, this is likely to feel too blunt and too sprawling.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rodrigo Homsi (3★) · 102 likes
Oliver Stone filma a transformação violenta de uma nação de cultura milenar através do sofrimento de um povo durante a guerra no Vietnã, onde expõe numa visão macro como uma sociedade auto-sustentável é transformada numa nação pobre e miserável a mercê de um invasor que está ali por uma questão geopolítica usando a desculpa da democracia para abusar de um povo.
Os sofrimentos da protagonista podem ser uma metáfora de um Vietnã seduzido enganosanente pelo sonho capitalista que no final reencontra os seus ancestrais e o seu passado nos campos de arroz.
shookone (2★) · 79 likes
Stone's awkward mixture of anti-war radicalism, his trademark critique on the 'American Way' and an heavily kitschy melodrama. a film that is very cheesy but at the same time pretty brutal. big O was always more the filmmaker for the rough stuff, so his hatred against the US military (and military in general) is huge, and he isn't holding back in showing his contempt; barbaric rape, sleazy prostitution, fallen values, heavy violence, unbearable torture - major aspects of the film… more Stone's awkward mixture of anti-war radicalism, his trademark critique on the 'American Way' and an heavily kitschy melodrama. a film that is very cheesy but at the same time pretty brutal. big O was always more the filmmaker for the rough stuff, so his hatred against the US military (and military in general) is huge, and he isn't holding back in showing his contempt; barbaric rape, sleazy prostitution, fallen values, heavy violence, unbearable torture - major aspects of the film… more
Michael James (3★) · 64 likes
An anti-war drama belonging to Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy. Heaven and Earth is based on a true story, following the life of a young Vietnamese women through the war. The impressive part is the way Stone captures the emotional, physical and spiritual impact caused by both sides fighting the war toppling the life of normal people drastically.
“If war produces one thing, it is cemeteries.In cemeteries there are no enemies.”“Lasting victories are won in the heart.Not in the land, this or that.”
chavel (3.5★) · 54 likes
“In 1954, the French and American allies separated us and kidnapped the South. Can we stand by and watch the kidnappers taking turns raping and corrupting our sister? That’s what this war is about.” – North Vietnamese pacifist at the 10-minute mark
The third film of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy following his Oscar winners “Platoon” and “Born on the 4th of July,” the previous entries famous for spending some time down in the bush with American combat soldiers. And so… more
theironcupcake (3.5★) · 46 likes
"If war produces one thing, it's many cemeteries. And in cemeteries, there are no enemies."
(Warning: some spoilers ahead.)
Film editor Sally Menke's next assignment after Reservoir Dogs was Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth, the third part of his Vietnam War-centric trilogy that also included Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Frankly, I'm amazed that I liked the film as much as I did, given how much I hated JFK, Nixon and Snowden, the last of which I had… more