Watches
January 31, 2021
Oliver Stone is pretty hit-and-miss and this was one of his misses. It's interesting to see he made this just one year before Natural Born Killers (still my favorite Stone), I guess he needed to get all the saccharine out of his system after making Heaven & Earth. Don't expect a typical Stone war flick, this is hefty Hollywood romance in a far away country.
Le Ly lives in a small village that gets torn apart by the war. No matter who visits, the villagers are tortured and raped regardless. Le and her mom escape to Saigon, where she gets pregnant and has to turn to prostitution to make a living. Walking the streets, she meets Steve Butler, a kind-hearted soul who wants to marry her.
Loud, sentimental music, overbearing drama and some tourist-like cinematography scream Oscar contender. So much that even the Academy got a queasy from all the pandering and passed it right by. At 140 minutes, it's also excessively long. There's a handful of interesting scenes, other than that this is just one big misfire.