A Soldier's Sweetheart (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

truth, fiction - who cares when the story is this good?

[hlgirl · 7/10 · 19 February 2002]

I think this is the first movie adaptation of a literary work that so closely and successfully follows its source material in tone and language. Vietnam veteran and author Tim O'Brien's short story occupies that shady ground between truths weirder than fiction and urban legend - and whether it's absolutely true or not really doesn't matter.

The film itself is a simple piece of atmosphere and sketches of character and psyche, with quiet, almost dream-like contrasts of naivete and brutality that drifts around the borders of the medical compound. During a lull in the action and off the front lines, the soldiers of the medical unit are only occasionally confronted with consequences of war, and never with the actuality of it, though it always hangs over their heads, personified by the Green Berets encamped nearby.

The "greenies" are rarely seen and almost never speak, coming and going from their violent encounters in the dark, like some strange mountain spirits. The mystery of the landscape, the war, and the promise of something _different_ seduce and ultimately swallow the "soldier's sweetheart."

The performances are spare and haunting, the premise intriguing, and the story fully captivating.

Deeper story than you would think

[Penoyer1 · 7/10 · 8 November 2003]

This starts out with the feel of kind of a dumb love story (the guy imports his girl from America into Vietnam and she becomes the little sister of the whole squad). But it then becomes about her reaction to the experience of being around war and death and takes some really unexpected turns. Excellent acting by all of the main characters and an ending that leaves you sort of wandering what just happened. A very satisfying movie experience.

Original story's main point is MIA

[bridgman · 7/10 · 10 December 1998]

I watched a tape of "A Soldier's Sweetheart" with my fellow creative writing graduate students. We had all dissected the original story, "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" earlier this semester under the guidance of novelist Darcey Steinke, who is the University of Mississippi's visiting Southern writer-in-residence.

The movie spent 2 hours telling a story that could have been told in 1 hour, yet it still muddled author Tim O'Brien's main theme: the telling of a story. The other theme, how women would react to a war, was explored pretty well. The casting was effective, though.

Just for everyone's information, here's the plot: "Rat", an infantryman in Vietnam, is telling a story to his squad mates, who think he's telling a tall tale at first, until he keeps laying out consistent details and candidly admits that he can't guarantee the parts of the story that he didn't witness himself.

Spoiler warning!

The story is about his old outfit, a MASH unit with no officers on top of a hill that they share with a Special Forces (Green Berets) team. One of the medics sneaks his girlfriend, Marianne, over from Cleveland via Braniff Airlines and USO shuttles. At first, it's like a little vacation, but as Marianne learns to tend the wounded, shoot an M-16, cook and speak Vietnamese, and hike and swim in the jungle, she goes through a spiritual transformation, "Vietnam makes me glow in the dark" "I can feel my blood moving". She tells her boyfriend, who thinks it's time to send her back, that this is the happiest she's ever been.

When she disappears for the night, her boyfriend assumes she's cheating on him, but learns that she has begun to accompany the Green Berets on ambushes. He lays down the law with her, but soon she goes out again with the Green Berets, but grows impatient even with them. She quits wearing boots and stops using a rifle (the movie version has her keep a rifle), and disappears into the mountains.

The short story (which has made at least one Best Short Stories of the 20th Century list) ended it there, but Hollywood had to do its thing and have her run through the combat zone where Rat is telling the story. They wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on that superfluous ending.

A giant leap of faith to grant the premise, but intriguing given the leap

[bryant52 · 22 June 1999]

Tim O'Brien's combat experience was either not particularly well reflected or deliberately altered by the director to better frame the story. Regardless, once you accept the premise, the movie became in many ways reminiscent of, perhaps a precursor to, Apocalypse Now. Marianne's descent into her own heart of darkness (though somewhat stagey) still illuminated the central question effectively. In a summer filled with cartoon cutouts going through their paces in front of blue screens, it was refreshing to watch a movie (even a flawed movie) which attempted greater things.

Full metal bra

[=G= · 6/10 · 22 February 2003]

"A Soldier's Sweetheart" has Sutherland as a hunkered down Army medic in Vietnam telling an incredible tale to a disbelieving comrade. The tale, which is the bulk of the film, is about his experiences with another soldier (Ulrich) at a sort of mini-MASH outpost who manages to have his civilian sweetheart (real life spouse Cates) from home brought to him "in country" where the pert female finds herself enjoying her unauthorized vacation-of-sorts in war torn Vietnam a little too much. The film plays out as a sort of tall tale as it begs the question is the story fact or fantasy...a question it attempts to answer in the conclusion. An obviously budget conscious made-for-tv flick full of time consuming uneventful filler, the film flows like molasses though it does wax curiously if not interesting if not suspenseful. An okay watch for those into girl power and Vietnam war spook stories. (C+)

How Comes?

[jprc · 3/10 · 1 August 2000]

Rat, a surgeon, is not officer? He is then fighting in the jungle like a simple infantryman?? Are infantrymen doing surgery in MASHs??

A soldier on duty can bring his girlfriend, during war time, in the middle of the jungle, in a MASH outpost?? Army choppers carry regular people to sensitive area without having to report? The Special Forces take non-trained external element against their own safety/rules? More of that, she is a girl (and not looking fit enough to be an athlet), and we are supposed to be in the 70's!??

A sweet-soft and candid girl becomes a trained special force, without any physical and mental training, within days/weeks, in one of the most difficult war ever: jungle guerrilla? She shifted from butterfly-lover, vietnamese-food lover, everythings/everyones lover to be a VC killing machine??

How comes?

A hauting story retold on the silver screen

[shawny11_2001 · 9/10 · 25 April 2002]

Obviously those who said the ending was a "total cop-out" have obviously NOT read the story on which it's based on. The story, "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," I believe, ended the exact same way the movie did. You're left not knowing exactly what happened to Marianne, only a few stories that've been swapped around.

A haunting story indeed, of an ignorant little girl brought to Hell. Kiefer Sutherland portrays Rat Kiley perfectly. Skeet Ulrich actually acts for a change. All in all, one of the better unknown Vietnam movies that has been made in recent years. But it isn't for everyone, I can promise you that. If you don't like how the story's ending just kind of fizzles, then don't bother with the movie. Mainly because you've been entranced by Hollywood's "gotta know everything and have the 'happily-ever-after' " endings that every crappy movie has been given in the last 10 years.

Bravo to the filmmakers for providing the audience with a beautiful renditioning of a wonderful short story.

Absurd Plot!!

[alex-252 · 5/10 · 10 March 2000]

The movie ,A Soldier's Sweetheart is really funny without the intention to be. The plot is absolutely absurd with a sweet loving young girl that comes to her boyfriend in 'Nam to give him the attention that he needs. If you think this is absurd, you are absolutely right. But hang on, it get's even more hilarious. The girl changes in a few time from a sweet child to Rambo IV. She joins the Green Berets who of course are all thrilled by her staying over. She becomes a lean mean fighting machine, without a kind heart. Well, the plot sounds like Hot Shot's 3 but weird enough the intention of the makers was to make a drama with the pretension to make a new apocalypse now. I laughed my ass off! So should you!

A crafty and very unique experience.

[mhasheider · 9/10 · 23 February 2002]

Movies that focus on the war in Vietnam now are almost completely forgotten. Well, "A Soldier's Sweetheart" is a different story and how the tale unfolds is remarkable. A soldier named Rat (Kiefer Sutherland) tells the tale that may seem like a tall one of how Fossie (Skeet Ulrich), an lonely army medic whom Rat had worked with a small Army hospital, who had his girlfirend, Marianne (Georgina Cates) flown in. Sutherland and Ulrich are fine here, but Cates steals the show here with a solid performance. A crafty and very unique experience.

Rubbish

[Spenny-4 · 1/10 · 25 June 2000]

What a heap of sentimental crap. A totally inconceivable plot with the lamest ending imaginable. You spend the whole film cringing at those daft expressions put on by the girl, getting angry at her sheer selfishness and idiocy in going with the green berets (as if they'd let her) and then falling over with disbelief at the quite preposterous, bland ending which is a real cop out. Don't even bother watching it.

The end of the film does NOT mirror the book.

[gleinbach · 28 April 2004]

Contains Spoilers Those of you who think the end of the movie adequately mirrors the end of Tim O'Brien's short story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" need to go back and read the story. The "hollywood" ending of the film is terrible. That's not to say the film is without merit--let's just say the film is good until the last 5 minutes. Someone at HBO felt we needed closure, so they have Rat Kiley running around shooting people; eventually (DON'T READ THIS if you want the ending spoiled--but then, HBO spoiled it already) Mary Anne comes out of nowhere and saves him. And the slow-motion explosion just before we fade to black? What were they thinking? I highly recommend this film--though you should first read O'Brien's wonderful story--but stop the tape with five minutes (or so) to go.

The First Half Is Fine, Then Welcome To Boring UNREALISTIC Crap

[killerkandykorn · 4/10 · 29 May 2011]

1. First Off! If your looking to watch a movie that is true to the Vietnam War Don't WATCH THIS

2. Second Let Me Tell You Why You Shouldn't Watch It. SPOILER ALERT THE WOMAN IN THE STORY GOES OUT ON AMBUSH WITH THE GREEN BERETS AND SHE LIKES IT SO THEN SHE PAINTS HER FACE UP THROWS HER SHOES AWAY AND GOES AND PLAYS COMMANDO IN THE JUNGLE. A woman spending months alone living in the wilderness was something that worked for I Spit On Your Grave, but for this movie that is trying to be REALISTIC, it's just completely unbelievable, and a woman no less. I may be a little sexist, but I believe there are things men should do and there are things women should do, there are things men can believably do and there are things women typically do not do.

3. Your Viewing Experience The movie is actually good until a little over half way through after that it becomes boring, and it's pointless to watch.

4. Reasons to watch this movie If you are a woman maybe you could enjoy this movie If you are a man and you think it would be hot to see this chick become a soldier OTHER THAN THAT Don't WATCH THIS MOVIE

A Medic brings his girlfriend to Vietnam from the US

[mikeca07 · 9/10 · 2 March 2006]

I just wanted to point out that this isn't from a short story. It is a chapter of a book by Tim O'Brien entitled "The Things They Carried". Rat was in the same unit as the author (O'Brien) and told him the story as he apparently witnessed it. O'Brien doesn't go as far as to say this is a true story, but does indicate that Rat, who told it to him believes it to be true. Further more he makes a point of explaining that Rat gets very upset when the others in the unit don't believe him. Whether the story is true or not, the book and the movie are both well done and give an interesting and some what unusual take on the Vietnam War.

This is a crime to the book and what it stands for

[flyme-1 · 1/10 · 16 April 2006]

Tim O;Brien should have pan this from the beginning this is a short story among great short stories and the fact that they did this puts into question O'Brien's the things they carry. I have read the book and have a brother who went to Nam. My research paper on this book was about all the people that remember Nam should forget it and all the people who forgot it should remember it. the meaning to this is the soldiers went through hell at a very young age only to come back to a civilization who wanted to sweep it under the rug and the soldiers with it. this is why when telling a true war story is written by azar he calls the girl a cooze because she did not care that her brother was dead she rather not think of the war at all. If Tim O'Brien reads this i hope he sees that reading his novel makes us know what they went through and makes him remember that none of them wanted to be there. so belittling one of his stories with a movie he belittles his book and all the people he was trying to represent.

Gripping Vietnam Drama

[pmrushmere · 9/10 · 22 October 2000]

Gripping Vietnam Drama starring Skeet Ulrich. He stars as a young medic who smuggles his girlfriend into the worn torn country but soon comes to regret it. An eerie and off-beat Vietnam film with good performances from Kiefer Sutherland and Daniel London.

Don't quibble with details;it's not meant to be realistic.

[icknay · 17 November 2001]

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.

One of the best--EVER

[pculliton-617-536576 · 9/10 · 22 January 2022]

This is a brilliant film adaptation. Now, if you don't like "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," Tim O'Brien's tale from They Things They Carried, you will not enjoy this film. But if you're a fan or the original writing, you will be entranced by this. I am a teacher of literature, sixty years old, and I find only one step awry in this adaptation. There are VERY few films based on literature about which I would ever say that. The story itself may require a leap of faith, but there's no further leaping to appreciate this film. The acting, dialogue, and perhaps most importantly the screenplay, are superb. The film's one fault is its ending, which muddles the story.

Not so bad at all

[nieltje · 28 December 2002]

the weird thing about A Soldiers Sweetheart is that it's worth watching it. if you say that it's stupid to get your girl to 'Nam, you're right, but that's the gimmick. it makes the story interesting. the movie is not so bad at all. it's quite enjoyable actually. thumbs up for Kiefer Sutherland and Skeet Ulrich! I really want to recommend this movie to anybody who hasn't seen it yet!

Interesting take

[rafaelc378 · 7 December 2000]

Of all the short stories from Tim O'Brien's book, "The Things They Carried", why did they pick this one? I could have picked better ones to put on the silver screen.

Otherwise, it did a good job, on the surface, of telling the story. But it seemed (to me, who has read the book) to unnecessarily drag on.

And what's up with the last scene? (Although I saw it coming for miles)

Another example of a good book turned into a mediocre movie

excellent actors , and interesting first half..but

[silvr107 · 21 January 2000]

While Sutherland, and Ulrich were both great,and the story had you for the first half.. the second half was, shall we say, too far a stretch of the imagination, to be able to conceive of any thing of this sort happening , a much more solidly built actress, or better all around actress was needed, Cates was wholly unbelievable as the-- "sweet innocent butterfly turning into the manipulative, aggressive spider" character!