IMDb > A Bright Shining Lie (1998) (TV)
A Bright Shining Lie
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A Bright Shining Lie (1998) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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A Bright Shining Lie (1998) -- True story of Army man John Paul Vann, whose military success provided him the fulfillment he never found in his personal life.

Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   783 votes
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Up 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Terry George
Writers (WGA):
Neil Sheehan (book)
Terry George (teleplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for A Bright Shining Lie on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
30 May 1998 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | War more
Tagline:
In war as in life the difference between truth and deception is what a man allows himself to believe.
Plot:
True story of Army man John Paul Vann, whose military success provided him the fulfillment he never found in his personal life. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
Act Welcomes Former NFL Star Bo Eason in Runt Of The Litter 9/18-10/24
 (From BroadwayWorld.com. 24 October 2009, 1:30 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Not the Usual Suspects more (21 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Bill Paxton ... Col. John Paul Vann

Amy Madigan ... Mary Jane Vann

Vivian Wu ... Lee

Donal Logue ... Steven Burnett

Eric Bogosian ... Doug Elders

Kurtwood Smith ... General Westmoreland
Robert John Burke ... Captain Drummond
James Rebhorn ... Ambassador
Ed Lauter ... General Weyand
Harve Presnell ... General Harkins
Pichariva Narakbunchai ... Annie
Les J.N. Mau ... Colonel Dinh
Van Cao ... Col. Huynh
Kay Tong Lim ... Colonel Cao Huynh Van
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Rory J. Aylward ... Bomber Command
Susan Noel Benfatto ... Picnic Lady (as Suzy Noel)
James Bigwood ... Office Manager

Andrew Borba ... Reporter #1 (Nick)
Chang Ching Peng Chaplin ... Annie's Father (as Ching Peng Chaplin Chang)
Xujen Dangers ... School Teacher
Richard DeRusha ... Protocol Officer
Bo Eason ... Officer Tally

Erich Fleshman ... American GI
John Higgins ... CIA Man
Tom Hong ... ARVN Captain
Robert L. Hull ... Bureaucrat Soldier
Abhijati 'Meuk' Jusakul ... Sergeant Muek (as Abhijati Jusakul)
Seng Kawee ... VC Leader (as Kawee 'Seng' Sirikhanerut)
Kajie Khan ... Madame Nhu (as Kajie Kahn)

John Lafayette ... Major
Richard Libertini ... Marriage Counsellor

Karina Logue ... Barmaid
William L. Mansey ... Officer Conroy
John Patrick Markovitch ... Jesse Vann age 9
Kathleen Markovitch ... Patty Vann age 7
Michael Markovitch ... Peter Vann age 12
Jon Marsh ... British Reporter
Robert Miranda ... Vann's Cousin
Richard Montgomery ... General's Aide
Wannipa 'Aoi' Navapan ... Child's Mother
Thanh Nguyen ... ARVN Translator (as Than Nguyen)
Vu Dinh Nguyen ... Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Ba
'Josh' Somsak Orajan ... Vann's ARVN Driver
Jim Pearson ... Army Sergeant
Somboon Phutaroth ... Housekeeper (as Samboon Putaroth)
Robert Pross ... Reporter #2 (Bobby)
Phillip Roope ... Red Cross Man (as Philip Roope)
Todd Sible ... Jesse Vann age 19
Colin D. Smith ... American Commander
Major Robert J. Szempruch ... Vann's Helicopter Pilot (as Major Rob Szempruch)
Van Thoa Trinh ... VC Commander

Phong Atwood Vo ... Peasant (voice)
Graham 'Grace' Walker ... Pastor (as Grace Walker)

David Warshofsky ... Terry Pike
Chris Webster ... Vann's Aide (as Christopher J. Webster)
Bill Whelan ... Ron Dray
more
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for war violence and some language.
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
118 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Vietnamese
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby
Certification:
Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 (video rating) (1999) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | USA:R
Filming Locations:
Lompburi, Thailand more
Company:
Home Box Office (HBO) more

Fun Stuff

Goofs:
Anachronisms: The opening sequence shows a napalm run over the jungles of Vietnam. However, the film first starts out in 1962, and napalm bombing did not begin until 1965. more
Quotes:
John: It is not true that we are here to solve problems, sir. WE are the problem. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1999) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
The Twist more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
Not the Usual Suspects, 11 April 2002
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

The ordinary trajectory in a film like this during times like these is for Vann, like Philip Caputo, Ron Kowalsky and numerous other figures before him, to enter the service on the verge of exploding with patriotism, idealism, and gung-ho-ness, then to learn that the Vietnamese war was a big mistake as he is turned around by the events he witnesses. Kind of like what happens to David Janssen in "The Green Berets," only in reverse. Not so here. This is a complex and admirable story of a complex and not entirely admirable man. He is sent to Vietnam as a Lt. Colonel, bursting with enthusiasm and with his eye on promotions, true, but he does not undergo an epiphany in which God or the Buddha appears shaking a finger at him. He wants to win the war but feels it's being fought inefficiently. We need to coopt the communist revolution by getting rid of the corrupt and cowardly Vietnamese officers and giving the rice back to the peasants or something like that. He makes his views known to the press and is more or less forced to resign his commission. (The story is a bit murky on this point.) After a few years' dry spell at home he is called back to Vietnam as some sort of civilian advisor who now wears the two stars of a general and issues military orders. He has not lost his enthusiasm or his idealism and comes to believe that we can now win the war by conventional means, even after Tet. He orchestrates a heroic victory over the North Vietnamese army, then his career ends, as does his life. That's not what I would call the usual ten-cent trajectory in character development. It isn't nearly linear enough. And in that nonlinearity it resembles life more than it does fiction. Is Vann a hero? Undoubtedly. Is he a good man? Well -- yes and no. After his marriage (to the character played by Amy Madigan) he sleeps with the 15-year-old babysitter. In Vietnam he evidently lies to a beautiful young woman he seduces and tells her he's separated from his wife. On his return to Vietnam he looks up the girl again. She seems just as gorgeous, at least to these eyes, but she's changed her hair or something so he avoids her. Instead he takes up with a schoolgirl and gets her pregnant. When confronted with his self-evident guilt by the girl's father, he marries her. On the other hand, he doesn't smoke or drink. There is an attempt to account for his misbehavior by means of some half-hearted palaver about how his mother was a whore. He was an illegitimate child and blames this status for keeping him out of West Point and getting him booted out of the army. The film betrays itself here if the writers and producers really meant to put forward this information as a pat explanation of his various failures, but if they meant it mainly as the way the protagonist attempts to justify God's ways to Vann, they hit the nail on the head. (Sure I'm flawed. Wouldn't you be, with a mother like mine?) The combat scenes are pretty effective, and so is Ed Lauter, playing a sympathetic guy for a change. Too bad the leads aren't. Whatever "charisma" means, Bill Paxton as Vann doesn't have it, though he looks the part; and the reporter from the New York Times, with whom Vann has a falling out, generates a rather large hole whenever he is on screen. The girls are indescribably delicious. Neil Sheehan, on whose book this story was based, has a tendency to stretch for drama and characters that aren't there. His earlier book could not turn the Captain of the USS Vance into Queeg. But judging from this film, he has presented a more complicated picture of a man here, a more adult portrait, warts and all. All together, the time spent watching this movie is well spent. I'm not sure how close I would like to get to a man who didn't smoke or drink and who called down artillery fire on his own position but it's fascinating to know something about him at this remove.

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