Saigon - Year of the Cat

Rating:
Summary: Accurate portrayal of the last days and the fall of Saigon.
Review: I purchased this movie because I am a Judi Dench fan. She plays a British bank employee named Barbara Dean. Barbara is a strong, independent, smart, sexy, caring woman. She and an American CIA employee at the American embassy fall in love. There is an immediate connection between these two. As their love affair develops, the political situation goes from bad to worse. The American ambassador arrives in Saigon, but refuses to believe that things will not improve. He does not listen to advice from anyone and waits until the last possible moment to make decisions involving the evacutation of both embassy employees, American military personnel, and Vietnamese. Papers must be shreaded and lives must be saved. I just saw this bit of history shown on Peter Jennings' The Century on the History channel.The movie shows almost exactly the same panic of people trying to get on some of the last helicopters to leave Saigon, the crowds at the front of the embassy, the shreaded documents, and the indecision of the American ambassador that I saw on The Century. Kissinger spoke about the ambassador on the Century. E.G.Marshall portrayed him accurately. This movie told it like it really was. I especially enjoyed Judi Dench's subtle, yet passionate relationship with Frederic Forrest. Her character showed great compassion for her Vietnamese co-workers. I would recommend this movie to all those who enjoy Judi Dench and to those who would like to know more about this period in history. If you have seen Mrs. Brown and Shakespeare In Love and would like to see Judi Dench in a modern role, this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Very poor movie with a weak plot and boring story line.
Review: I was an extra in this movie but hadn't seen it until I received the video as a gift. Big disappointment.

This is a movie about a love affair between the characters of Frederic Forrest and Judi Dench that occurs in the final days of the Vietnam conflict.

There seemed to be so much action in this movie when it was being filmed but that doesn't come through in the final product. The pace of the movie is extremely slow and the atmosphere of most of the scenes tend to induce sleep rather than the excitement of that era. Further, there are good people in the cast--as can be seen in E.G. Marshall and Judi Dent--yet this is one of the slowest, least interesting movies I've ever viewed. Even the two characters that are supposed to be in love show no real chemistry.

I'll keep the movie but only because it's fun to go through the scenes looking for my friends and myself that were in it--not for any artistic reason.