Themes: Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance, Haunted By the Past, Crumbling Marriages
Main Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Hiep Thi Le, Debbie Reynolds
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 140 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
With Heaven and Earth -- cobbled together from two autobiographical reminiscences (When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace by Le Ly Hayslip -- Oliver Stone completes his self-declared "Vietnam Trilogy" (the other films being Platoon and Born On the Fourth of July) of films examining the Vietnam War from different perspectives. Heaven and Earth begins in the central Vietnamese village of Ky La during the 1950s. Phung Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le) is an innocent peasant girl, helping her mother (Joan Chen) to tend the rice paddies while being lectured in the ways of life by her father (Haing Ngor). The idyllic peace of the village is disrupted when a jet bomber crosses the skies. Soon the village is decimated as the American-backed South Vietnamese government troops and the Viet Cong engage in brutal warfare in which the victims are the innocent villagers. Le Ly is both tortured and raped. She leaves Ky La for Danang for a life as a prostitute. There she meets the tall and craggy American soldier Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), a kind but lonely man who isn't looking for sex but for someone to settle down with -- as he says, "I want an Oriental wife." They marry, and Steve takes her back to the United States, where her in-laws look at her not as a wife but as a pet. In the harsh glare of 1970s U.S. culture, Le Ly has trouble adjusting to the American way of life. But not as hard a time as her husband, who, after twenty years in Vietnam, discovers he cannot adapt to civilian life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Dustin Nguyen - Sau; Vivian Wu - Madame Lien; Conchata Ferrell - Bernice; Dale Dye - Larry; Liem Whatley - Viet Cong Captain; Robert John Burke - G.I. Paul; Michael Paul Chan - Interrogator; Timothy Carhart - Big Mike; Tim Guinee - Young Sergeant; Marshall Bell - 3rd Dinner Guest; Robert Marshall - Detective; Annie McEnroe - 1st Dinner Guest; Chitra Mojtabai - Supermarket Check-out Girl; Marianne Muellerleile - 2nd Dinner Guest; Stephen Polk - G.I. #1; Brad Rea - G.I. #3; Vivien Straus - Neighbor's Wife; Tai Thai - Jimmy (age 20); Phil Neilson - Marine in Helicopter; Keith Smith - G.I. #2; Dave Cooper - Bald Onlooker; Tuan Tran - Rapist; Billy Hopkins; Heidi Levitt; Risa Bramon Garcia; Mai Le Ho - Hai; Irene Ng - 1st Torture Girl; Michael Lee - Ky La Wizard
Credit
Woods Mackintosh - Art Director, Les Tomkins - Art Director, Richard Rutowski - Associate Producer, Risa Bramon Garcia - Associate Producer, Clayton Townsend - Co-producer, Ha Nguyen - Costume Designer, Chitra Mojtabai - First Assistant Director, Herbert W. Gains - First Assistant Director, Oliver Stone - Director, David Brenner - Editor, Sally Menke - Editor, Mario Kassar - Executive Producer, Kitaro - Composer (Music Score), Matthew Mungle - Makeup, Victor Kempster - Production Designer, Steve Spence - Production Designer, Alan Tomkins - Production Designer, Clayton Townsend - Production Designer, Robert Richardson - Cinematographer, A. Kitman Ho - Producer, Arnon Milchan - Producer, Oliver Stone - Producer, Robert Kline - Producer, Merideth Boswell - Set Designer, Ted Glass - Set Designer, Jack Gammon Taylor, Jr. - Set Designer, Brian Cox - Special Effects, Oliver Stone - Screenwriter, Le Ly Hayslip - Book Author, Jay Wurts - Book Author, James Hayslip - Short Story Author
Le Ly Hayslip is a girl growing up in a Vietnamese village. Her life changes when the communist insurgents show up in the village to fight the forces of first France and then the United States. During the American involvement, Le Ly is captured and tortured by South Vietnamese government troops, and later raped by the Viet Cong because they suspect that she is a traitor. After the rape, her relationship with her village is destroyed, and she and her family are forced to move.
Her family moves to Saigon and she is employed by a family there. The master of the household misleads her into believing that he genuinely cares for her, and she falls for him and gets pregnant by him. The master's wife becomes enraged and Le Ly's whole family is forced to move back to their former province. There she meets Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), a Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. When she first meets him she is not interested in a boyfriend or marriage, having been through so much suffering. Steve falls for Le Ly and treats her very well, making a big difference in her life while in Vietnam.
The two leave Vietnam and move to the United States. Their life together begins well, but years of killing and life in the bush take their toll on Steve who becomes uncontrollably violent. The relationship falters, despite Le Ly's attempts to reconcile with Steve. After an impassioned plea by Le Ly for Steve to come back to her, Steve commits suicide. Many years following this tragic experience, Le Ly returns to Vietnam with her sons and shows them where she came from.
