SnoopyStyle Le Ly is a village girl from the country as she becomes intertwined with her country's struggle. Oliver Stone is looking at the Vietnam war from the POV of the Vietnamese. It is probably as important as his other Vietnam movies.Hiep Thi Le is a great find. She's able to give it heart and soul. It's a big job for somebody in her first big role. It's an almost impossible job.Tommy Lee Jones has a bit too much intensity. The chemistry is off to me. It's probably more real than I realize. It's a relationship that foreshadows trouble ahead. For a movie goer, I lust for that cinematic romance. But this is not that kind of movie.The last section in the States is not as compelling. It's almost a completely different movie. That's the weakness here. It's not a simple movie. It's a life story.

bobbyallright This movie gives a passionate and realistic view of the war. Things that really happened such as army guys trying to bring Vietnamese wives back to American and trying to make it work out. Like others have commented it makes you question who really started this war and for what reasons. Tommy Lee Jones character says it all in that quiet whisper that turns into an ugly argument when he tells his wife his mission is and has always been from the beginning to sell arms to countries such as her country. So it gets you thinking about what war is really about. Obviously the soldiers are trained to follow orders and not think about or question those orders. That would result in discharge. And for many in the war it dragged on for years on end and eventually people realize the pointlessness of it. How can the supposed most powerful nation on earth loose a war? You can break their backs with superior technology but you can't break their spirit. And you can never completely eradicate a poor people from their own country. There will aways be a resistance no matter how small. So you can never really win. It's like the old school yard bully who beats up on all the small guys. But as long as people despise the power and strength of the arrogant and evil bully there will always be resistance until the bully eventually pulls back and his pride injured. This has happened throughout all of history in all the world empires. Why is it we believe we are something different? This movie in someways gets you to think about that. Could it possibly be that we are the ones to blame? That we are where the problems started? But of course no one wants to consider that when it is so much easier to and cowardly to blame other people. That is why this film wasn't as well known and didn't rake in the multi-millions as other more popular Rambo movies.

Jessica Carvalho ''Heaven & Earth '' is an amazing story of a woman called Le Ly,and I consider it to be specially a story of not only survival, but victory in life.The fact that this story was real,makes this film even better,since we can see that optimism and a real power to go ahead,can make our lives change for the best. Le Ly is a Vietnamese village woman, who lives during the hard times of Vietnam war. She passes through the worst things in her life, since being tortured by Vietcong,being a fighter and also a teenager mother,who needs to be a prostitute in order to have something to her and her son to eat. When she marries an USA soldier called Steve Butler and goes to America,her life was about to change for the best,but years passed and Steve became a violent man and also an alcoholic,and again, Le Ly have big problems in her life. The good thing is that she will become a rich woman with her business in USA,and even today (yeah, she is alive!) she helps many people from Vietnam.

spirou666 I don't understand why this film has been rated so poorly, it really deserves better. The breath-taking landscapes, subtle imagery, the overall excellent craftsmanship alone make this movie worth seeing.The unique and very personal perspective of this movie makes it hard to keep your distance. Some scenes are rather brutal, but these scenes are necessary for telling a realistic story. Definitely no Disney family movie though.I give it a 9 out of 10, because even with 140 minutes runtime the story feels rushed and crammed. Sometimes less is more, I shall read the books now.