A Film of Stone
Perhaps for Part 3 of Stone’s Vietnam exorcism, he might consider the really big story about Vietnam that Hollywood and the country has managed to ignore among all the crybaby vet films.
The plot is basically this: A small, undeveloped Asian country with no air force or navy but with a lot of plucky citizens manages to withstand the onslaught of the largest military arsenal the world has ever seen and thoroughly defeat it.
There were millions of lost and maimed lives--maybe even a few Asian Ron Kovics, if we cared to look--and more than 15 years of coldhearted economic embargo by the poor loser of the conflict.
It really is a remarkable story that needs to be told. If only someone like Stone could (to borrow a quote from Dutka’s article) find a way “to connect emotionally with the material.”
PATRICK SHIELDS
Santa Monica
Only good movies
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