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IMDbPro

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

  • TV Movie
  • 19871987
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 24m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
DocumentaryHistoryWar
A documentary featuring letters written by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news cov... Read allA documentary featuring letters written by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof, augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, ... Read allA documentary featuring letters written by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof, augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
    • Bill Couturié
    • Richard Dewhurst(screenplay)
    • Bill Couturié(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Tom Berenger(voice)
    • Ellen Burstyn(voice)
    • J. Kenneth Campbell(voice)
    • Bill Couturié
    • Richard Dewhurst(screenplay)
    • Bill Couturié(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Tom Berenger(voice)
    • Ellen Burstyn(voice)
    • J. Kenneth Campbell(voice)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 26User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Primetime Emmys

    Photos9

    1 sheet video release movie poster
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)
    Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tom Berenger
    Tom Berenger
      Ellen Burstyn
      Ellen Burstyn
      • Mrs. Stocks
      • (voice)
      J. Kenneth Campbell
      J. Kenneth Campbell
        Richard Chaves
        Richard Chaves
          Josh Cruze
          Josh Cruze
            Willem Dafoe
            Willem Dafoe
            • Elephant Grass
            • (voice)
            Robert De Niro
            Robert De Niro
            • Great Sewer
            • (voice)
            Brian Dennehy
            Brian Dennehy
              Kevin Dillon
              Kevin Dillon
              • Jack
              • (voice)
              Matt Dillon
              Matt Dillon
              • Mike
              • (voice)
              • (unconfirmed)
              Robert Downey Jr.
              Robert Downey Jr.
                Michael J. Fox
                Michael J. Fox
                • Pfc. Raymond Griffiths
                • (voice)
                Mark Harmon
                Mark Harmon
                  John Heard
                  John Heard
                  • Johnny Boy
                  • (voice)
                  • (unconfirmed)
                  Fred Hirz
                    Harvey Keitel
                    Harvey Keitel
                    • 2nd Lt. Donald Jacques
                    • (voice)
                    Elizabeth McGovern
                    Elizabeth McGovern
                    • Me
                    • (voice)
                    Judd Nelson
                    Judd Nelson
                        • Bill Couturié
                        • Richard Dewhurst(screenplay)
                        • Bill Couturié(screenplay)
                      • All cast & crew
                      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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                      Storyline

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                      Did you know

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                      • Trivia
                        Was number nine on Roger Ebert's list of the Best Films of 1988.
                      • 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, when you lost your life in Vietnam. And as I look at your name, I think of how many, many times I used to wonder how scared and homesick you must have been, in that strange country called Vietnam. And if and how it might have changed you, for you were the most happy-go-lucky kid in the world, hardly ever sad or unhappy. And until the day I die, I will see you as you laughed at me, even when I was very mad at you. And the next thing I knew, we were laughing together. But on this past New Year's Day, I talked by phone to a friend of yours from Michigan, who spent your last Christmas and the last four months of your life with you. Jim told me how you died, for he was there and saw the helicopter crash. He told me how your jobs were like sitting ducks; they would send you men out to draw the enemy into the open, and then, they would send in the big guns and planes to take over. He told me how after a while over there, instead of a yellow streak, the men got a mean streak down their backs. Each day the streak got bigger, and the men became meaner. Everyone but you, Bill. He said how you stayed the same happy-go-lucky guy that you were when you arrived in Vietnam. And he said how you, of all people, should never have been the one to die. How lucky you were to have him for a friend. And how lucky he was to have had you. They tell me the letters I write to you and leave here at this memorial are waking others up to the fact that there is still much pain left from the Vietnam War. But this I know; I would rather to have had you for twenty-one years and all the pain that goes with losing you, than never to have had you at all. -Mom

                      • Connections
                        Featured in At the Movies: The Couch Trip/For Keeps/Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam/Rent-a-Cop/The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn (1988)
                      • Soundtracks
                        Gimme Shelter
                        Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

                        Performed by The Rolling Stones

                      User reviews26

                      Review
                      Review
                      Featured review
                      10/10
                      Probably the only war movie that really makes you fear war
                      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
                      helpful•14
                      0
                      • pooear
                      • May 3, 2000

                      Details

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                      • Release date
                        • September 1988 (United States)
                        • United States
                        • English
                      • Also known as
                      • Production companies
                        • Couturie Company
                        • Dear America
                        • GBA
                      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

                      Technical specs

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                      • 1 hour 24 minutes
                        • Color
                        • Dolby

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