Taken at face value this film is a little ridiculous. So don't see it as a war story;see it as an allegory. Here's the deal: GIs really miss the good old USA. They are miserable, stuck in a strange foreign land. One gets the idea of how to bring home to them in the guise of his girl. She arrives and they suddenly feel safe and home again. Note there are none of the expected plot turns such as jealousy and sexual competition. All the guys are happy to have her there;they don't desire her;she makes them happy just by being there. She is the girl next door; the unchanging symbol of the USA, home! Yet, she begins to change; she is "polluted" by mixing with the strange foreign environment they carefully avoid. She becomes different,unsettling in the same way the good old USA is becoming changed by the tumult of the 60s back home. This foreshadows the way the guys will feel when they return home to a strange,now foreign USA. I saw an interview with the director and he described this film as a Vietnam War movie. If that is what he meant it to be it is a really bad one. Try it my way ; it makes much better sense.
Review of A Soldier's Sweetheart
A Soldier's Sweetheart
(1998 TV Movie)
Don't quibble with details;it's not meant to be realistic.
17 November 2001