Faith of My Fathers

Faithful biography depicting the life of Sen. John McCain as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

Coming from a strict military family, McCain is able to weather the storm on confinement and brutality of the North Vietnamese during the conflict.

A weak student at the academy, McCain is backed up by his father, a very good performance by Scott Glenn. Glenn portrays a totally dedicated military official who doesn't even shake an eyelid when he informed that his son has been captured.

The torture chambers and the torture inflicted on McCain and others is well shown.

McCain is definitely pictured as a hero in this film. He refused to be released if it meant having to participate in North Vietnamese propaganda.

A very good story dealing with military honor, call to duty and undying patriotism by our men and women in uniform.

Basically a 2-hour film showing McCain getting abused as a POW. I learned nothing about McCain from this except that he was horribly abused. Even how or whether he stood up to it was deliberately left unclear. Or maybe I dozed off in the middle and missed it.

What's left out was his reaction, his growth, what he thought about during his time, and what he did when he got out that made him enter politics. In other words, the movie was totally lacking in merit. I gotta figure that McCain's book (on which the movie is based) had to provide all this detail but the producers had no interest in that aspect.

As for Scott Glenn, I cannot understand how he agreed to this role. There was no meat here for him to sink his teeth into. Anyone can play the role of a father that never shows his emotion. But the opportunity to go into his inner conflict between being a major leader of the Vietnam conflict and his son's confinement was dealt with in less than 1 minute of the film.

Acting from other players was similarly disappointing. For example, there was no in-depth struggle by the actors playing the soldiers who confessed for fear of more torture.

What a disappointment.

I wasn't surprised but yet surprised by the treatment that Senator McCain received during his 5 yrs as POW. I thought the movie was rather moving in the fact on how the military can prepare ones own mentality to "hold on" to survival and to fight that of brainwashing tactics. I was surprised however to question why the Vietnamese just didn't shoot him and the rest of the POW's......why didn't he leave when given a chance? I believe that there should have been more movies out like this shortly after they ended "the conflict" to show the American people more in-depth of the treatment of our herons. With this said, it would of, I believe, been more opened, understanding and welcoming arms reached out to our herons coming home. I thank everyone of them every day in prayer :-)

Shawn Hatosy appears to be managing his career carefully. For a young, relatively unknown actor he seems to look for work in films with casts that include accomplished, known co-workers. He hasn't made the mistake of accepting anything that's offered.

The story (McCain's harrowing experiences as a POW) should make one appreciate what McCain has given to his country but my lasting impression of this film is Hatosy's work. His was a very, very good piece of acting. This is an actor who has established a floor under his work which he will not go below. He has relatively high standards which assures viewers that anything he appears in will be good, or very good.

This story is a great tribute to those who withstood the horror of being a prisoner of war not only during the Vietnam War, but any conflict. I knew of Senator McCain's story at the time for I was 21 years old when he was released, but did not know the whole story until now. The young man who portrays McCain, Shawn Hatosy, is riveting, he catches every emotion the senator must have gone through during those five years. You can see the touching relationship he had with his career-navy father was the strength he drew from in the years he was imprisoned. It makes you think....how can another human be so utterly unfeeling to another human to think nothing of inflicting such torture and pain. I know the recent photos of our own military inflicting horrible torture upon others makes me see that any human can be inhuman, that it doesn't matter who you are or what country you were brought up in. But that is no excuse and you can see that in this story of how one man stood high and above his captors and never lost his respect for himself or the other prisoners there with him. God bless John McCain.