Vietnam in the Movies

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Editors note: This is a guest post from John Hutchinson. Be sure to check out his full bio at the end of the post.

You’ve probably heard of people doing Vietnam tours by train, scooter or even bicycle. But why not do your very own movie tour of Vietnam?

You could actually do a tour of Thailand to see all the locations there that have masqueraded as Vietnam in famous films you’d have thought would be set here such as Good Morning Vietnam with Robin Williams, which was actually shot in Bangkok and The Deer Hunter, with Robert De Niro, which was also partly filmed in Bangkok although set in Vietnam.

Heaven & Earth

Heaven & Earth is part three in a trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Oliver Stone that included Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. It was the least well received of the three films by reviewers. Based on a true story and starring Tommy Lee Jones (who you may remember from Men in Black and Volcano), the film follows a Vietnamese village girl who survives the Vietnam War by fleeing her farming village with her mother by becoming many things including a hustler, occasional prostitute and the wife of an American marine. The film was partly shot in Thailand, as the Vietnamese government objected to its portrayal of the Viet Cong but was also partly shot in Vietnam.

The Quiet American

The Quiet American is not only a movie, but an anti-war novel written by Graham Greene, who also famously wrote Our Man in Havana, Brighton Rock and The End of the Affair. It was shot prolifically in Vietnam in many of the well-travelled and beautiful places. This really is a good movie to use to guide you on your own tour of the country. It almost follows the railway line, which goes north to south, having used Ho Chi Mihn City, Hoi An, Da Nang, and Hanoi as well as Ninh Binh and Hoa Lu as filming locations.

The 2002 film, starring Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine, was the second time the book has been adapted for cinema. In contrast to the 1958 version, the more recent film kept Greene’s original ending and focus on the protagonist. The story is about a love triangle between a British journo in his fifties, an American aid worker (in inverted commas), and a Vietnamese girl.

The Last Airbender

Probably the least likely Vietnam movie tour you’d want to do is for the movie: The Last Airbender, unless you have a particular type of humour. Billed as one of those so bad it’s good movies, many people who went to see it didn’t even give it that much credit. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who brought us such gems as The Sixth Sense and Signs, The Last Airbender shows us a world divided into four nations that can each harness one of the four elements. The last being on Earth to be able to ‘bend’ the four elements is found in an iceberg. He must save Earth from the Fire nation, who are attempting to enslave the other nations. It was only partially filmed in Vietnam.

John Hutchinson has enjoyed travelling since he was a young boy when his parents first took him to visit family overseas. Since leaving home, John has tracked down family all over the world and regularly jets off to faraway lands to see distant relatives.

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