Heaven & Earth (1993)

Oliver Stone directed this adaption of the true life story of Vietnam native Le Ly Hayslip. Hayslip's story is an incredible one, what this woman went through is amazing, so I'm not going to go into any real specifics because it might be best to see this movie in relative ignorance of its story. Hiep Thi Le who plays Hayslip is excellent by the way, and the supporting cast is strong including Joan Chen, and Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones and Haing S. Ngor. Bear in mind the film is not strictly historical, one major character is a composite and a number of things are simplified, but the core is true. While the film got bad to mixed reviews upon its release, and was a major box office failure for the then hot Stone making only $5.9 million off a $33 million budget, it's really something of a lost classic, at times hard to sit through but really an accomplishment and quite a moving story. ****