Love and Honor

This was actually a very good film. The first 15 minutes into it I thought to myself 'Oh boy, another cruddy movie bites the dust', but this film, in a very subtle way, comes into it's own and blossoms into an endearing story. A very well acted movie all around. I always like Teresa Palmer and I was very impressed with Liam Hemsworth as well. Liam reminds me of a young Val Kilmer in this film and I can ensure you that Hemsworth's career will continue to rise.

Furthermore, I have to give major props to the DP of this film. This is a film with a very limited budget, but the DP does a fantastic job with the quality of each shot. Pretty brilliant the way everything is shot in an 'interior' like style since the budget is low, very smart shooting in that close-up, interior shot style.

Lastly, this is a film that raises some questions about the Vietnam War, questions that have never been addressed in a Vietnam War film before (or at least any Vietnam war film I've seen). Pretty thought provoking. All in all, a film worth watching.

This film tells the story of a young soldier of United States of America, who goes on an unauthorised trip back home to win back the girl of his dreams.

"Love and Honor" is not the ordinary chick flick. Not only does it have some battle scenes, it also shows very well the internal battles of the soldiers in choosing whether to defend his love or to defend his honour. The relationships of the two soldiers are very convincing and the two couple all have great chemistry with each other. I can feel the soldiers' torment in having to choose between love and the troops. I felt for the characters, and I was touched by their stories. I enjoyed watching "Love and Honor" a lot.

I found this DVD in a bargain basket at a Walmart grocery store. Forget the politics for a few minutes. I'm a conservative, but I really don't think this movie was about the Vietnam War. It was about women as "muses." Muses are inspirations for artists and others.

The whole movie is based upon the concept of a special girl as the inspiration for a special soldier's courage. One loses it and one gains it. I like that.

Liam Hemsworth plays a cliché adequately. He's the ladies' man who thinks of himself as the leading man of every moment of life. But I like the way they paired a guy who has never committed to anything, with a guy (the other male lead)who has always been about commitment.

I totally get the fact that the other guy is in love with the small town girl he left months ago, but clearly she has changed dramatically. At first you ask yourself why he would continue to want a girl who has become such a daffy hippie. But you have to realize that he still thinks of her as who she was before.

There is some balance in terms of the portrayal of different cliché types of the 60s era. The hippies are exposed as posers and the soldiers as neither patriotic nor traitorous. They were just generic young dudes trying to survive, albeit the more conservative lead volunteered and had that honor code as part of his personality.

At first I didn't really understand why the Hemsworth guy would even like the blonde he meets. He's a soldier and she's just some stupid Leftist. But then I understood that he admired her commitment to anything, since had never been committed.

This is a low budget film with plenty of plot loopholes. Neither guy went to see his parents on leave from Vietnam in America. One guy falls "in love," in less than a week." There's a pristine lake for swimming and no one else is using it, except our lovebirds on a beautiful day.

There were more anti-Vietnam War statements than pro or neutral, so if that upsets you, you may want to stay away. But if you have patience, you may appreciate the theme of love inspiring soldiers.

The movie did not rely on a clichéd soundtrack of classic 60s songs. There may have been a few, but I don't remember any, so it could not have been too obnoxious.

With Love and Honour, Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer bring some Aussie flavour to the quintessential American staple: a love story set in wartime.

The film tells the tale of Mickey (Hemsworth) and Dalton (Austin Stowell), two soldiers who spend their week off from Vietnam flying back to America, where Dalton plans to reunite with his best gal Jane (Aimee Teegarden). Mickey, ever the adventurer, tags along for the ride before getting bitten by the love bug himself in the form of Candace (Palmer).

If the plot sounds older than time itself, it's because it is, but the film remains at least a bearably enjoyable romp. In what proves to be both a blessing and a curse, Love and Honour plays out like two films in one.

In the first half, the acting on display is above par, and while the script fails to account for some plot holes, it manages to avoid an avalanche of clichés that films of this genre are typically so prone to.

Disappointingly, the second half labours, jumping right back onto the beaten track en route to a bland and entirely expected conclusion. A decent option as a mind-numbing stimulus, watching this ninety-three minute film will feel like…well, about an hour-and-a-half.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*

Love and Honor tells the story of a soldier in Vietnam, Dalton, who takes extreme measures when he receives a Dear John from his girl back home; he jumps his RandR and flies back to Michigan to try to win her back. His buddy Mickey, perhaps only looking for a good adventure, perhaps genuinely trying to help his friend, flies back with him, and strangely finds true love himself when he meets a friend of the girl in the house they are living in. A problem--both girls are Vietnam protesters, and the fact that Dalton and Mickey are soldiers provides an awkward backdrop to their developing romances.

Love and Honor is a movie that is non-functional on a number of interesting levels, and is therefore strangely entertaining. This is a movie that is probably best taken as a sort of chick flick (romance burgeoning in an impossible situation) and on that level, it is mildly effective. In such movies, the drama does not have to be top quality--we get caught up in the silly story and suspend our disbelief to enjoy the tackiness of the whole thing.

The problem, however, is that Love and Honor occasionally veers off of this course and tries to be more serious. We get, for example, modest attempts at a realistic period piece; problem is that the movie does not seems realistic at all--scenes in Hong Kong were filmed in an airport built in the 1990s, and much of the movie seems like it has no sense of the period.

The movie occasionally tries to veer into the realm of serious drama related to the anxieties of war time, ala Born on the Forth of July. Problem is that our cast has the look of 21st century fashion models, kind of like watching a modern sitcom. It is not believable, and attempts at gritty realism seem to simply fall flat.

As a result, the movie seems very much like a 21st century teenage fantasy about what the Vietnam period was like. If you like watching this kind of stuff on TV, well then you are fine sitting in front of this movie. If, however, you are looking for The Deer Hunter, or Born on the Fourth of July, then you are bound to chuckle at how silly the movie looks or acts.