Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987) (TV)

Director:

Bill Couturié

Writers:

Bill Couturié (writer)
Richard Dewhurst (writer)

Release Date:

September 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot Keywords:

Letter | Photograph | Newsreel Footage | Correspondence | Voice Over Letter

Awards:

Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tom Berenger	...	(voice)
Ellen Burstyn	...	Mrs. Stocks (voice)
J. Kenneth Campbell	...	(voice)
Richard Chaves	...	(voice)
Josh Cruze	...	(voice)
Willem Dafoe	...	Elephant grass (voice)
Robert De Niro	...	Great sewer (voice)
Brian Dennehy	...	(voice)
Kevin Dillon	...	Jack (voice)
Matt Dillon	...	Mike? (voice)
Robert Downey Jr.	...	(voice)
Michael J. Fox	...	Pfc. Raymond Griffiths (voice)
Mark Harmon	...	(voice)
John Heard	...	Johnny Boy? (voice)
Fred Hirz	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Dear America

Runtime:

Germany:83 min | USA:87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:PG | Australia:PG | Sweden:11 | USA:PG

Company:

Dear America

Quotes:

Mrs. Stocks: [In a letter to her KIA son, left at the Vietnam Memorial] Dear Bill, I came to this black wall again, to see and touch your name. William R. Stocks. And as I do, I wonder if anyone ever stops to realize that next to your name, on this black wall, is your mother's heart. A heart broken fifteen years ago today...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Will & Grace: Something Borrowed, Someone's Due (#4.17)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

WALK LIKE A MAN

Moving, powerful

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.