Journey From the Fall
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Movie Reviews of Journey From the Fall
Movie Review: Why the Vietnamese pray for a special hell for Cronkite
Summary: 4 Stars
A grim reminder of what happens when the US betrays its allies and leaves them to face the inhuman, whether it be Communism or ... something else ... and why the Vietnamese hope there is a special level of hell for Walter Cronkite and the rest of his ilk who finally broke the spirit of America by their misreporting of the Vietnam War, portraying the Tet Offensive as a victory for the Viet Cong instead of the disaster that it was for them.
It's many portraits of man's inhumanity to man ... starting with the protagonist Long's insistence on staying behind while sending off his family to the "New Economic Zone". It's a cruel and unexplained choice. It's further confused when, witnessing the terror in the streets because of the Communist victory, he says, "Do you think it would be any different if America had won?" Not sure what he means by this crazy statement, but it seems inexplicably foolish, especially since he's sending his family there ... and it's not clear why he wants to stay, or what he hopes to accomplish, apart from being imprisoned and tortured. (That's where the atheistic regime's inhumanity to man is on display, with their re-education camps and using prisoners to stumble upon mines.) Perhaps this equating an American victory with the Communist one - thanks again, Cronkite - is the writer's bit of inhumanity to us and to the Vietnamese people, a little, cruel joke at the expense of the millions who suffered under the atheistic empire.
Then there's the ordeals of his family, who become "boat people" to reach the promised land. Seasickness, claustrophobic quarters, and pirates, scum of the earth who ironically mirror the entire Communist government.
But there's more ... his family also commits little inhumanities to each other by keeping secrets, silly though they may be. The grandma, apparently not understanding the fundamental tenets of Buddhism, prays to Buddha and credits him for their deliverances (quite against Buddha's exhortations to extinguish all desire, and quite against the dispositions of one who has been successful in doing so (Buddha) to lift a finger to help, if indeed he could, having attained nothingness). She tells the kid to write his dad, in order to keep hope alive, even though they've nowhere to send them. The kid is ungrateful to the mom, who works in a sweatshop. And so on.
The film feels overlong, but I suppose not much could have been done apart from mostly needless "home movie"-style flashbacks. But, apart from the confusion mentioned above, it's a timely message to a generation who are blithely unaware of the Darwinist Communist horror, which killed orders of magnitude more people in "modern" times than all the religious wars of past centuries combined. (Hitler, also following Darwinism, "only" killed 11 million, whereas the Communists killed over 100 million.)
Movie Review: powerful drama of survival and hope
Summary: 4 Stars
After South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975, many of those who were seen as having "collaborated" with the Americans during the war were sent to "re-education camps," where they were brutalized and tortured until such time as they were deemed fit to return to society fully on-board with the repressive regime's mantra of collectivist solidarity. Others, more "fortunate" perhaps, were able to escape the coming onslaught, becoming known internationally as "boat people" - though many of these refugees tragically never made it to their destinations. "Journey From the Fall" movingly recounts the story of one family that gets caught up in both of these predicaments.
Despite a flashback-filled structure that becomes a bit confusing and even disorienting at times, "Journey From the Fall" is a wrenching and compelling tribute to the ability of the human spirit to survive under even the most hellish of circumstances. The movie chronicles not only Long Nguyen and his fellow prisoners' experiences in the camp but the attempt by his wife, mother and young son to flee the country by boat (in fact, the last forty-five minutes or so of the movie detail their struggle to adjust to their new life in Southern California). The movie is sometimes hard to watch - for writer/director Ham Tran never flinches from showing us the harsh reality of the subject he is portraying - but there's always the possibility of better things in the future to mitigate the suffering.
At a running-time of well over two hours, the movie could have used some trimming to accelerate the pace, but the quality of the acting and the universality of the theme keep us absorbed throughout.
Movie Review: "re-education"---at home and abroad
Summary: 4 Stars
When the credits run at the end of this film, director and writer Ham Tran (a graduate of UCLA 's film school) dedicates his wrenching drama to the millions of ordinary citizens who fled Vietnam on boats (the "boat people") or who, having stayed behind out of loyalty to their country, were subjected to horrific "re-education" camps because they dared to oppose the "revolution." The story begins with the fall of Vietnam to the communists on April 30, 1975, and ends in Orange County, California in 1981. Tran follows the harrowing fate and fortunes of one family (and in various sub-plots their friends). The father, Long, is imprisoned in successive re-education camps. He insists that his wife, mother, and son flee on the overcrowded, rickety boats. And so a deeply loving family is rent asunder. The communists in their brutality, observes the grandmother, "have lost their humanity." I won't spoil the film by revealing what happens to the family, only to say that the challenge of immigrating to the US is as arduous as surviving as a refugee. The film has won awards at sixteen film festivals. In Vietnamese with English subtitles.Movie Review: Good movie for enjoying and teaching your children about the price of freedom
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good movie. The story is very touching. It truthfully reflects what happened after the fall of Saigon in 1975 under the hands of the brutally inhumane Vietnamese Communists. I know because I was there, I have uncles who got sent to the so-called "re-education camp" and I am also one of those boat people. One complaint I have about the movie is that sometimes the speech of Long and some prisoners are hard to understand (I turned off the sub). They don't talk clearly so it becomes unintelligble. I could understand other actors/actresses very well regardless of what accent (North or South) they have. So I have to give only 4 stars for this one.Movie Review: Oh My God
Summary: 4 Stars
I would have given this movie a 5 out of five, but the english subtitle was crap. Since I am Vietnamese, I could understand what they're trying to really mean. But since I watched this with my class, it had to have an english subtitle. Some Vietnamese jokes on here are only funny in Vietnamese. Words get lost in the translation. And Banh Xeo is not "Vietnamese Crapes".