Vietnam in HD (2011)

Wow! Such a good movie.

terrible... so disappointed.

Great Film overall

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I was looking forward to this and thought it was a decent overview of the Vietnam War but it really only covers the US major involvement from 1965 onwards, when in fact they had "advisors" there since the late 50's. The Ten Thousand Day War series goes into much more depth as it begins begins in 1945 and then ends with the surrender of Saigon in 1975. I did like how they expanded on the major battles (Ia Drang, Khe Sanh, Hamburger Hill etc.) and much of the footage is unbelievable. It hits most of the Vietnam touchstones (Tet Offensive, that guy getting executed, Khe Sanh etc.) but doesn't mention 2 major stories from the war, the My Lai massacre and that picture of the naked girl running down a road after being burned by napalm. Her name is Kim Phuc and she's currently living in Toronto. Now she would've made a great talking head. All in all a pretty informative overview of the war in Vietnam.

Absolutely was enthralled by the show. I was an innocent child of the 60's from Canada for the second time enthralled by the news (the first being Kennedy's assassination).My only concern was, I was under the impression that a greater percentage of the draftees were black and I did not see that representation in the film, also I was hoping to learn more on the My Lai massacre. Thank You for the memories,,,B I hope there might be a season 2..the lessons learned for both our countries with the Afghanistan war have been understated, also from an old nurse's point of view the medical "on the ground" information has been beyond measure..

yes, the footage is good, but as someone who's (too) familiar with combat situations and the history of war (the Vietnam war as well), I must say this isn't a documentary. The series try too much to show the US as the winning side in the conflict instead of covering the other aspects of the war. see how they emphasize the concept of "winning" after each and every scene and battle. If I had to summarize the purpose behind this series it would be "lets show all the great footage we got and present it as if America actually won the Vietnam war".There are no winners in war. war is nothing more than a military means to a political end. it suck. it's horrific. but this series don't deal with the political aspects around the Vietnam war, so winning has nothing to do with it. This series claim to cover the historical aspect, so what's with all the claims of "we've won" this and "we've won" that.Military is all about combat, tactics, weapons etc. but to understand war is to understand how we, as people, react to all the different aspects of it. If you're interested in the history of Vietnam war then I suggest you look elsewhere. Start by reading the "dull" history facts, then watch "china beach" to learn of the human aspects and the side-effects, and then try to get your hands on "secrets of war - Vietnam - hidden in plain site" (by the History channel) to understand how it looked from the VC side.Learn about war so if you ever forced into one, at least be aware of the true nature and ramifications of it, on both sides.

I liked this a lot. It seemed that the series strove to maintain a neutral point of view in regard to the causes and/or futility of the war while maintaining focus on the individuals they profiled, and in my opinion they largely succeeded. Unlike a previous reviewer, I did not find it to be overly narcissistic, pro-war, or even all that pro-American, though the focus was definitely on the American experience. Some time was also devoted to other factors, such as life for the families back home, protests and movements, and U.S. administration positions on the war at various points, though the main focus remained with the progress of the war and the battlefields themselves. Leaving the controversies aside, I thought that what the series tried to do -- portray the experiences of various individuals at certain key places and events in the war -- they did quite well. I also liked the graphics and illustrations and, as opposed to other documentaries I have seen, I thought that these were distributed well and did not get in the way of the real story. The CGI stuff was good and not overdone, in my opinion.The thing about Vietnam is that once you start discussing the controversies and what we now know to be untruths, it is a discussion without end, full of passion and short on facts, not because of the people discussing it but because the whole thing was based upon a twenty year series of lies and deceptions on the part of the governments involved. Wherever there are lies there will always be arguments, and the subject of the Vietnam war is proof positive of this on a massive scale. This series did not attempt to take any of that on, and wisely so. Though at times I found this irritating -- for instance, the neutral announcement of the events in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 as legal cause for Johnson's escalation, when we now know that at least one of the incidents never happened -- I could recognize it as necessary in telling the story. If they had taken on any one of the many controversies or governmental lies, it would have been a quicksand from which the series would not have recovered. I'm glad they didn't! It is good to remember that many of those fighting were not volunteers but draftees: it was a federal charge and prison time to dodge the draft. In that light, I do not think that talk of honor and duty is narcissistic or out of place: many did not choose the war, but were sent by force. These went in service to their *country* -- if not the war itself -- and acquitted themselves on a personal level largely with great honor, regardless of the legitimacy of the war or their belief in it. Many times in the series you hear the soldiers referring to the war as a lost cause, and yet they gave their lives for it, if only because that was what they personally felt was the honorable thing to do. I believe that this *personal* honor, courage and heroism on an *individual* level is what this series was trying to bring out, and I think it succeeded very well.I enjoyed this series in spite of its neutral point of view, and I think it was very nicely done given the incredibly controversial nature of the war and its premises. While I would NOT recommend this series as a primer on Vietnam, nor even a good outline or overview -- you'd be better off going to Wikipedia for that -- it did very well with what it tried to do, and it's well worth a watch if wartime documentaries are something you like. Enjoy!