Last Days in Vietnam

It's quite amazing how much was captured on film and photographs and it's put together so well that it almost seems like one was watching a movie of the fall of Saigon - it feels so complete. There are interesting interviews with witnesses mainly military personnel both US and South Vietnamese.

Unlike a typical Vietnam war movie this covers a different angle - not about fighting the war but the end of the war. There is criticism of Ambassador Graham Martin's refusal to organize an evacuation till it was too late leading the the chaos that took place. Would have liked to know more of his reasons for being so obstinate and the diplomatic failure at the end.

One minor fault is subtitles are in white sometimes against a white background and so hard to make out.

This makes one want a follow up on what happened to those left behind beyond the words of epilogue at the end.

Some reviewers here have missed the point: in no way, shape, or form does Last Days in Vietnam purport to be a documentary covering the whole of the Vietnam War and the rights and wrongs behind it. That documentary would take hours to chronicle such events. Instead, this is a snapshot of a single situation, the airlifting to safety of many South Vietnamese people in the dying days of Saigon.

Where Last Days in Vietnam excels is in the contemporary footage of the event. The entire film is made up of old news footage of crowds fleeing and the unfolding situation at the US embassy in Saigon. Talking head footage is cut in to humanise the story, and the documentary as a whole turns out to be thoroughly engrossing: it's gripping stuff, moving with it, in which the best and worst of human nature is brought to life.

Every talking head character here has an interesting story to tell. The director, Rory Kennedy, is the daughter of none other than Robert Kennedy and although I wasn't familiar with her work previously I'll be looking out for her in future. Last Days in Vietnam is superlative stuff, and unmissable viewing for anyone with an interest in those ill-remembered times.

One of the most reviled wars in American history, in term of involvement, is explored through the eyes of sympathetic humanity toward its last days.

The war in region known as Vietnam stretched nearly thirty years – and in the Last Days in Vietnam, filmmakers show the chaotic and desperate final weeks before and after the fall of Saigon.

Nearing 1975 the war in Vietnam was supposed to be finished through the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. However, North Vietnam continued the offensive and in doing so, violated the treaty. Slowly descending toward the South Vietnam capital of Saigon, and with US troops withdrawing, the scramble for safety intensified. In the final weeks, American soldiers and diplomats stationed in the area are confronted with a moral predicament: obey direct orders from the Executive Branch to only evacuate US citizens and condemn their Southern Vietnamese allies to an unspeakable end OR ignore orders, risk treason, and save as many lives as they can.

As someone born close to fifteen years after the end of the Vietnam War, the severity and desperation of that time is but a lesson from a history book for me. I am too young to know about Vietnam extensively, and unfortunately the American public education system rarely catches up to near-current history.

The documentary, Last Days in Vietnam, lacks the minute details of a backstory in the opening of the film to catch uninformed viewers up to speed to fully comprehend the complete gravity of the situation during this time. Last Days in Vietnam pretty much wastes no time and jumps right in to the withdrawal of troops and consequential impacts upon the South Vietnamese. From then on it is a fast-paced and suspenseful account of the courageous and hopeless efforts to save civilians while expressing the genuine reverence US soldiers has and have for their allies, who the US government had no direct objective to rescue.

Last Days in Vietnam is heart felt and comprehensive, detailing the accounts of those final days and weeks through video, pictures and first-hand personal narratives. The simultaneous use of real chronicles with video and photography makes for a powerful and engaging experience for the viewer.

Though the film mentions in passing, the harsh reality and ultimate consequence of war, human lives, especially in the face of imminent conquering and defeat – it does not delve deeper. Nor does Last Days in Vietnam review those civilians who were unable to be rescued or had unresolved resentment toward the Americans for abandoning them. Without these key unexamined pieces, Last Days in Vietnam ends up feeling like an American propaganda documentary – informative but one-sided.

Please check out our website for full reviews of all the recent releases and awards contenders.

Rory Kennedy is a masterful story teller, and has combined that talent with historical accuracy in this engaging and truthful documentary. Having been a former AP reporter in Vietnam, I can verify that the US evacuation in 1975 is a little told story---a critical element of the war story, but often disregarded in the annuls of this war. But the evacuation is a catalyst for Ms. Kennedy to recreate the dynamics of how easy it is to get into war, but how difficult to get out. For Vietnam veterans, often not wanting to talk about their war experiences, Ms. Kennedy deftly interweaves the soldiers stories who were there, with an out of touch US ambassador who refused to believe that Saigon would ever be defeated, to a Congress that blocked any more funding to support a falling regime. But the soul of this story is how they all were morally and personally torn by leaving behind many of their Vietnamese counterparts who could not be evacuated in a very hasty and uncoordinated US departure. To add another original dimension, one of the US Kirk navy men had hours of 8mm footage of the evacuation that was uncovered in his attic and remastered by Ms. Kennedy for use on the documentary. One of our soldiers spoke for many of our troops when he said "that he sometimes even dreamed in Vietnamese." In one of the same, this may have been a small part of the war's history, but at the same time epitomized the entire war in 98 minutes of drama, skilled cinematography, stunning resolution and sound, and the riveting pain of war. As an educator and child advocate, I would urge that this be used as a resource in every social studies, history, and political science class rooms in the country.

From 1971 to 1975 I lived on the island of Puerto Rico. As my father was an employee of the Federal Government, my siblings and I attended school on a military base. I went to Antilles Middle School on Fort Buchanan from third to seventh grade. I remember two things most clearly from this time. First, our classrooms were WWII era barracks and secondly, every couple of months the entire school was sent down the hill to cheer on various military leaders who were coming in by chopper. On a couple of occasions, we were told that we were cheering for Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland, the former Commander of US Military Operations in Vietnam. Viet Nam was something that I was aware of as a young boy, as I was a voracious reader of newspapers (because they were in English) and magazines. The only time I heard my father, a WWII and Korean conflict veteran, mention it was in the context of him moving his family to Canada if they drafted his sons. Not that any of us were anywhere near draft age, but it gives you a sense of the feeling that the war would never end. Certain images from the front pages of newspapers of that time are burned in my memory, including the image of the rooftop helicopter evacuation of Americans from Saigon. That evacuation is the focus of "Last Days in Vietnam", a new documentary by Rory Kennedy. With archival footage, newly released recordings and interviews with pilots, evacuees, and those left behind, Kennedy tells the gripping tale of the men who did their damnedest to uphold American honor and personal responsibility. This is the story of how they dealt with the "terrible, terrible moral dilemma" (as said by one of the interviewees) of deciding who to evacuate. Devoid of most of the politics of the day, Kennedy focuses on the men who, while not specifically given the responsibility for getting as many people out as they could, took it upon themselves to rescue those who faced certain death at the hands of the approaching North Vietnamese forces. The marines on the ground, the chopper pilots in the air, and the naval commanders at sea are all given their due for the incredible work that they did in evacuating approximately 170,000+ people in an amazingly short period of time. There are no villains in this film. Ambassador Graham Martin, the person responsible for ordering an evacuation, is treated fairly, as questions are raised and answered as to why an "official" evacuation had not begun earlier, and why thousands were left behind. Heroes are plentiful, from the American pilots who flew for 24 hours straight, to the South Vietnamese pilots who did whatever it took to rescue their families and friends. Most telling as to the emotional toll this event took on those involved is the overwhelming sense of regret and sorrow you get from interviews with US Marines responsible for Embassy security, and the images they witnessed as the last chopper departed Saigon – thousands of people left on the Embassy grounds that had been assured they would be rescued. The evacuation of Saigon is probably the least known component of the Vietnam War as it occurred two years after the Paris Peace Accords had been signed and the US had withdrawn all combat troops. It deserves to be better known and understood and the people involved appreciated, and this film goes a long way in recognizing the honor and bravery of those tasked with an impossible mission. It's a tribute to Kennedy's skill as a filmmaker that she manages to take a story to which we all know the end and writes a seemingly new, riveting chapter. While the Vietnam experience is often looked at as the nadir in American foreign policy and military engagement, "Last Days in Vietnam" shows us that, even at its lowest point, there were those who stood tall and went above and beyond the call of duty to uphold American honor and simple human dignity.