Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)

Simply Perfect

Simply A Masterpiece

Brilliant and touching

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a very emotional movie and very well done. My husband and I watched movie this together years ago and he got up and walked out of the house during the movie. It was too much for him. He was a Vietnam Veteran. Recently, approximately 6 months ago, I started watching it again. It's been over 20 years. This December it will be 20 years ago that he took his life. Our children were 13 yrs, 11 yrs and 10 yrs at that time. They are now 32 yrs, 31 yrs and 29 yrs and doing well. I still miss him and feel so much guilt that I couldn't save him. He is buried in the state Veterans" Cemetery, and I know he would be proud of this. Thank you, Mr. Bill Coulturie, for this movie and giving me some kind of release. I need to cry and you have given me the outlet. Bless you, and thank you.Charlene winter

What's there to say about a documentary which combines letters from soldiers in the Vietnam War with news clips and music of the day?I saw "Dear America" only once, back in 1987 as a senior in high school, yet I remember it as well as movies I saw last year. Celebrities--including Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Robert DeNiro, and Michael J. Fox--read actual letters from the soldiers fighting the war with such passion, it seemed the letters were read by their writers. But somehow, the focus stayed on the grunts who wrote the letters.The most moving and memorable was the final letter, read by Ellen Burstyn, written by a mother to the son she lost to the war. The actual letter was placed at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.It's been nearly 17 years since I first watched "Dear America." I use the video now, a lifetime later, to teach *my* high school students about the Vietnam War.PG13: real war footage, mild language, and brief nudity. Despite the rating, less mature middle and high schoolers might see "Dear America" as just another war movie and not appreciate its importance.

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a documentary based on the book which printed letters from the soldiers and nurses who served in Vietnam. This emotional and powerful film takes the viewer through the war from optimistic beginning to seeds of doubt to the bitter end and a postscript with the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial. While read by famous actors..some of whom you will recognize..it does not in any way detract from the raw power and emotion of the words of the soldier or nurse who having seen enough of the war, now wonders why and when they will make it back home. A true masterpiece that should be seen by all those in power before sending troops. This is the Very best film - fiction or non fiction - that i have seen. On a scale of one to ten..way up there...10

Dear America, is most certainly one of the really great war films, and this is because nearly everything is real, all footage and the letters read are real, the only things that aren't authentic are the actors voices, however these are some of Hollywoods finest so believing them to be the actual soldiers, mothers, nurses is easy.It is more a documentary then a film, but the presence of the actors gives it a cinemeatic feel.Accompanied by a great soundtrack (has there ever been a Vietnam movie with a bad one) this is one of the most moving and poignent movies you will see, it is through its realness that ones gets a feel of how bad war really is, it is probably one of very few war movies that really makes you fear war, because there is no adventurous sub plot, just some letters from young guys, most of whom just want out.The final letter really sums up the entire movie, and I would have to say this is one of the most moving pieces of film ? I have seen, this is then followed by Springsteens Born in the USA, which brings a fitting conclusion to the film