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Hiep Thi Le, Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Haing S. Ngor, Conchata
Ferrell, Debbie Reynolds |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Le Ly: It is my fate to be in-between
Heaven and Earth.
The true story of a Vietnamese village
girl who survives a life of suffering and hardship during and after
the Vietnam war.
 Heaven
& Earth is the third movie Oliver Stone made that deals directly
with Vietnam, but it differs in a significant way from Platoon
and Born On The 4th Of July. This movie is based on two autobiographies
by Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman who experienced both the French
invasion in 1953 and the Vietnam war in the sixties firsthand and
somehow managed to survive during that period. It's her story and
it's both compelling and unsettling. Most of the movie revolves
around her relationship with her family and the hardships they endured,
although it never becomes melodramatic and sustains the feel of
realism quite well for over 2 hours.
The story is told from Le Ly's perspective, but the background of
the screenplay (written by Stone) is very much informed by her Buddhist
beliefs on the one hand and Oliver Stone's political beliefs on
the other. This means that the story doesn't quite gel as a whole:
Le Ly's story also takes a definite backseat as soon as the Tommy
Lee Jones character enters the movie, marries her and takes her
to the USA to start a new life. Stone pulls of some tremendous dramatic
visual flourishes during this episode (with a particularly impressive
Jones as a burnt-out psychotic Vietnam vet) but it definitely jars
with the rest of the movie. That said, Stone and cinematographer
Robert Richardson capture the early moments of beauty in the Vietnamese
countryside quite well, and use flashbacks and sequences of black
and white cinematography with a deft touch to convey Le Ly's inner
workings and experiences. First-time actress Hiep Thi Le does well
in the main role, and kudos to Stone for taking a chance on an unknown
Vietnamese actress in the lead. Joan Chen is equally impressive
in a role that demolishes her good looks but greatly adds to the
authenticity of the story. Well known Japanese musician Kitaro provided
the score: it actually was the first film score he ever did (he
won a Golden Globe for it) and it fits the movie perfectly. |
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Identical versions are available for
both Region 1 and Region 2 as part of the Oliver Stone Collection
series, both separately and as part of the Oliver Stone Collection
box set
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Although some edge enhancement
and aliasing crops up from time to time the overall picture is excellent,
with great deep saturated colours, natural skintones and plenty
of shadow detail. Lighting is used dramatically within scenes but
the picture stays solid throughout.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 track is terrific with some eerie moments of split
surround (for instance at the end of chapter 36 when Tommy Lee Jones
walks around the room) and plenty of low end for the .1 LFE channel.
Helicopter sounds are always impressive with a 5.1 setup and this
movie is no exception.
There's a great commentary track
by Oliver Stone which has a few surprising left turns. He doesn't
really stick to the movie although the first 50 minutes is filled
with enough detail on the actors, the story and philosophy behind
some of the themes and the technical processes of building the village
in Thailand. But then he seems to forget the movie completely and
instead starts a 40-minute discussion on US Vietnam policy and the
people involved and before you know it we're at the JFK assasination
again. It makes for great listening but its kind of weird to see
the main character going through all her ordeals and hear Stone
talking about some book he once read pertaining to some political
theory. He keeps the best for the end credits when he suddenly turns
very critical of the Hollywood system, wondering why actors get
paid so much and relating some stories on the financial aspects
of his own movies (this commentary was recorded right after Any
Given Sunday so he was probably still reeling from Al Pacino's
salary).
The second extra consists of nearly 50 minutes of deleted scenes
with the most interesting item a 22-minute alternate opening sequence
which fleshes out Vietnamese village life more. According to the
commentary, the opening (and although not mentioned, probably the
rest of the footage) was found in Stone's personal collection. Stone
provides optional commentary during all of the scenes.
A theatrical trailer is also present.  Menus
consist of a static image with no sound. Navigation is easy.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001,
updated: June 23, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Heaven
and Earth.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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