Heaven & Earth (1993) review

Part three of Mr. Stone's Vietnam War trilogy tells the story of Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le), who grew up in a small village with her farmer parents (Joan Chen and Haing S. Ngor), and talks about the French invading her country in the 1950's, the emergence of the Viet Cong, being tortured and raped by the South Vietnamese soldiers, having a child with a married man and later meeting American Marine Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), who falls in love with her and takes her and her kids to San Diego.  It's (loosely) based on two memoirs by the actual Le Ly (who has a cameo appearance as a jeweler) - and the filmmaker's own experience fighting in that conflict helps lend it a feeling of authenticity - but it's odd how, with all of the stylistic embellishments and a melodramatic score by Kitarō, this comes across as a big screen soap opera - a "battered woman finds redemption" tale - which doesn't exactly play into Stone's strengths as a director.  There are still strong sequences, like Le Ly experiencing culture shock when living in the States (and visiting a grocery store for the first time!), that help balance out the nearly non-stop cruelty, and the real Le Ly's work as a humanitarian is, of course, deeply commendable.