A Bright Shining Lie (1998)

Truth is stranger then fiction as the saying says. If nothing else A Bright Shinning Lie proves this to be true. This 1998 HBO film is adapted from Neil Sheehan's 1988 bestseller about the extraordinary life of John Paul Vann. Vann, who came to Vietnam first in 1962 as American military adviser who later resigned from the Army before returning to Vietnam and becoming the first American civilian to have a General's command, is the film's subject and whose journey becomes a tale of America's war in Vietnam in microcosm.Bill Paxton plays John Paul Vann, the man at the heart of the film's story. Paxton proves himself up to the task of playing Vann as man of a complex nature and contradictions. Paxton's performance as Vann covers all angels from soldier to husband to man of the world to outraged participant. While Paxton may be lacking the charisma that the real Vann is said to have had, Paxton gives us a portrait of an extraordinary man whose story is a microcosm for the Vietnam War.The film also features a nice supporting cast of characters. Amy Madigan gives a nice, if underused, performance as Vann's wife Mary who tires to understand her husband and his actions. Donal Logue plays the film's narrator in the form of reporter Steven Burnett (based in apart on the book's author Neil Sheehan) who befriends Vann before the two later differ over the war and it is Logue's performance that makes Burnett an interesting contrast to Vann. Eric Bogosian, like Madigan, gives a nice but underused performance as Vann's fellow aid worker Doug Elders (who is based on Daniel Ellsberg who worked with Vann before later becoming famous for leaking The Pentagon Papers). The cast also includes nice performances from Vivian Wu as a Vietnamese English teacher who becomes one of Vann's lovers, Kurtwood Smith as General Westmoreland, James Rebhorn as the U.S. Ambassador and Kay Tong Lim as Vietnamese Colonel Cao Huynh Van. Together they make a nice supporting cast for Paxton's leading role.Considering this is a relatively low budget film, production values of A Bright Shining Lie are pretty good. The film features some staged the combat scenes that convey the various forms of combat featured in the Vietnam War without being overly graphic in nature as seen during the Tet Offensive sequence. The sets come range from the highly convincing (such as the U.S. embassy in Siagon) to what one expects of a TV war movie but, for the most part anyway, they work. The film also features some nice music from Gary Chang as well as some fine use of source music and stock footage. A fine example of the marrying of source music and stock footage is the film's opening credits which features footage of a napalm raid on the jungle and Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" which struck me as odd when I first saw the film but having seen it again the use of both sums up the film and (the song at least) the character of Vann himself. As this was originally made for cable, the film doesn't betray its budget.The film's real major faults lie in its editing and script. Both find director/screenwriter Tony George trying to condense Sheehan's nine-hundred page book (and ten years of history) into just under two hours and the results are mixed. While some sections (such as Vann's initial 1962 stint in Vietnam and his return to the United States) are covered nicely other areas, such as the Tet offensive are done in a rather rushed fashion. Vann's personal life is also explored in some detail which helps to flesh out the story though ti would have been nice to have seen more detail.Yet while the condensing might have been somewhat mixed the story holds up. The story of John Paul Vann is, in its own way, a microcosmic version of America's war in Vietnam. Vann (like the U.S.) comes to Vietnam in the early sixties seeking to fight the Communists in what Vann himself calls "the war of the future," only to find that the South Vietnamese army is corrupt and only interested din protecting its own corrupt leaders. When Vann tires to get his superiors to listen he finds them in denial, his superiors wanting to believe that these people are capable of fighting on the supposed front lines of the Cold War. Vann ends up resigning and returning the Vietnam later on as a civilian trying to prove that the war is about the people and taking their rights away from the corrupt government. Yet as time goes on and America becomes more deeply involved in the war and as Vann (and the country's leaders) become more and more separated form the war at home, Vann becomes a part of the bright shining lie at the heart of the Vietnam War. The bright shining lie being that the United States (with help from the South Vietnamese) could win a guerrilla war by conventional means. It is a lesson learned by reporter Burnett but lost on Vann by film's end. The condensing of events might be rather mixed the story is a tale which can keep the viewers attention and asking (as Burnett does) how could it happen?A Bright Shinning Lie is one of HBO's finest films. Though hampered by the mixed results of its script and editing the film has many pluses. From the performances of Bill Paxton and the supporting cast to well staged battles, some nice set work, a nice score and the fine marrying of stock footage and source music. Yet, the ultimate success of the film is in its story. For the extraordinary tale of John Paul Vann in Vietnam is America's war in Vietnam in microcosm. It is tale that keeps the attention of the viewer and leaving them seeking answers.

I had received the book and DVD for Christmas last year. Being ignorant on much of the Vietnam War, I decided to read the book to see if I could apply anything to the Iraq situation. My brother told me to watch the DVD first because if I read the book first, the movie would be a huge disappointment. I read about 3/4 of the book and then watched the movie. Needless to say, the movie was a disappointment. It tries to cover way too much in a short period of time. Bill Paxton is OK as Vann but every scene is way to short. Several characters are composite characters rather than the actual person. Donal Logue appears to be a composite of David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan. Eric Bogohosian is completely miscast as a composite of Doug Ramsey and Daniel Ellsberg (I think they call him Doug Elders in the movie). The beauty of the book is the detail that it has. There's about 100 pages on Vann's 1962 stint and how he became completely frustrated with the American leadership in the war. There's about 100 pages on the history of Vietnam. There are about 100 pages on the Battle of Ap Bac and the fallout. The book weaves Vann's life in and out of the story of the Vietnam War. The movie makes Vann the centerpiece, so it becomes very difficult to get the background information and non-Vann information that one needs to understand Vann and the war. How could you do that in two hours?

For a TV Movie, this film was good. The film didn't look amateurish and the overall quality was generally very good. One scene that especially stood out was when Bill Paxton rushed to the village only to see it get destroyed. However, this movie could have been much better. The most critical error of this movie is that it tries to cover too many elements and ultimately fails to fully address them to any satisfying extent. It lacked focus. There were a lot of good ideas, such as the hidden propaganda, the conflict of war strategy of various people, the familial problems, to the questionable moral and ethical values of the main character..., but most of them were dealt with not more than a dozen lines! In short, this movie needed to be more developed and needed another revision before it was released.

The Vietnam experience seen through the eyes of an officer average american with family back home and the good intentions, often rebuffed, that are frustatingly hard to put in place. After "Good Morning Vietnam", which was a non-combat movie about Americans in Vietnam, this one comes close in describing what Americans felt in the war. This movie, however, is still a combat war movie, but sprinkled with family and personal issues, presented straight forward and down to earth. Produced by HBO, it is surprisingly a good production, with good acting.