Stone, of course, fought in Vietnam, and told of his experience (PLATOON) and of another vet's experience (BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY). Here, he goes to tell a story from the Vietnamese point of view - not just the way they look at the world, and the war, but also how they might tell a story. The result is uneven but affecting.
It's the true story of Le Ly Hayslip, based on her memoirs "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" (co-written with Jay Wurts) and "Child of War, Woman of Peace" (co-written with James Hayslip (Stone adapted both books). Hayslip (played as a woman by Hiep The Li) grows up in Vietnam in the 50's, and at first, everything is fine, with her being close to her parents (Haing S. Ngor and Joan Chen) and the rest of her family. Then the Vietcong come to recruit people to fight in the Vietnam war, and Hayslip's mother decides to send two of her son to fight with them. That leads the South Vietnamese to ravage the farm and torture her. The Vietcong, however, are no better, as they end up raping her, which leads to her parents disowning her. She gets a job with an aristocrat, but he also treats her badly. Eventually, when the U.S. invades, she must make her way to Saigon and become a prostitute. It's here that she catches the eye of Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), a soldier who at first seems different from most men in that he's gentle with her. Eventually, he marries her and takes her back to the U.S. There, of course, she experiences culture shock and racism, especially from Steve's family, but she also finds Steve is a more tortured soul than she first suspected.
This is a lot of material to cover, and some of it seems haphazard and soap opera-ish. Also, there's an interesting tension going on here. Stone's method of storytelling is always frenzied, as if he's trying to exorcize his inner demons every time he makes a movie. Hayslip's method is more subdued, as if to say fate always determines things, rather than mankind. There are times when Stone surrenders himself to Hayslip's way of seeing things, and those are the strongest parts of the movie. And for someone who's just dismissed as a lefty filmmaker, Stone doesn't whitewash the horrors the Vietcong perpetrated on the country (though, of course, the invading French and U.S. did much worse). But the film does become disjointed, never more so than with Steve. His character is a composite of husbands Hayslip has, and it shows - it's one thing for someone to crack from his service, it's another for them to go as gonzo as he does in America.
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