The first home movie of the Vietnam War, this made-for-TV documentary, with a galaxy of Hollywood stars narrating heart-rending letters from ordinary soldiers to loved ones back home, was so highly praised that it got a cinema release. Newsreel footage, super 8-film shot by the men themselves, period music by The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, and a rolling montage of snapshots of young men, many of whom lost their lives soon after they were taken, drives home the waste and senselessness of it all. This, rather than Hollywood's multi-million-dollar Vietnam action films, tells us what war is actually like and its rough edges are what gives the film its enormous authority.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes