Love in Country

Love in Country is much more than a war movie or a film about forbidden gay love. It successfully presents complex characters in an intriguing plot, good action, and beautiful original music.

Amidst the horrors of the Vietnam war, two men become involved in a relationship and physical attraction not allowed in the U. S. army. Tender scenes reveal the soldiers' moments of passion without overemphasis on their physical acts of love.

With exemplary performances by the leading actors, the film makes viewers feel that they are watching real events in 1968 Vietnam. A variety of personalities and qualities in the lead characters creates a definite check-off list for "like" or "dislike." Memorable performance by Elijah Olachea as "Burd." All the supporting actors brought a realism to their characters.

Love in Country is definitely worth seeing more than once.

Not sure the audience this was intended for? Not for your typical heterosexual masculine war buff moviegoers unless you don't mind watching men kissing in the battlefield mixed with an obvious low budget cgi action sequences, bullets that are blurs of smoke-like cgi. The story line leaves you wondering 'why did that just happen, did I miss something?'

The actors lines seem unscripted and awkward, the disjointed scenes seem entirely built an attempt to emulate major blockbuster Vietnam war movies

The director said "okay your going to be shot try to make it look like platoon"

Not worth it Watch a van Damme or segal movie instead.

The story keeps you barely entertained wondering what will happen next then you realize you could of watched a much better war movie.

This movie has a creative plot, haunting music, and is well-acted. The set design, costuming, sound editing, and storyline are all very nicely done. The LGBTQ theme is subtle but heart breaking. This movie makes you think and discuss for hours afterward about what it was like to be a soldier in Vietnam...in particular a gay soldier. The ending really brings to light some of the elements of war that are never really brought to light, including cruelty among the two sides, but also within the ranks. Even the antagonist has a back story that helps the viewer get a glimpse of why he may be the way he is.

Whilst this may be based on a true scenario, and there may well be an underlying critique on the intolerance of the US military towards anyone who wasn't a white, heterosexual, man during the Vietnam War (and in many other conflicts) that's no excuse for taking the story of these brave men and turning it into this. David Garber ("Sgt. Alexander") and Michael Southworth ("Sgt. Reese") are charged with leading a secret CIA mission whilst facing opposition from their tenacious enemy and, as the two men come to terms with their own sexuality, with their colleague's attitude to that - all whilst under fire and in hostile terrain. The narrative here is all over the place. The lacklustre direction and soporific score; the really mediocre writing and the stilted acting all contribute to what is essentially a throughly unremarkable piece of cinema that seems to have no idea who it is for, or what it is trying to say - beyond the bleeding (quite literally) obvious. Most films from this theatre of war depict tragedy and brutality - but most do it far more cogently than this insipid melodrama that uses a gay angle to the story to thinly disguise a poor piece of wartime story-telling. It can't have had much of a budget and much of it looks like it was filmed in someone's back yard. It probably was, and maybe they could just stick to showing it there, too. Very poor.

Love in Country takes a real life event from the vietnam war and puts a fictionalized spin on things in a way that feels thoughtful and fresh. The filmmakers skirt around the fact that there is a whole war going on out there that we don't see much of, by focusing on a small group with a kee mission. There are a few factors involved that lead us to think this effort may be doomed from the start. There is some light racism lurking, a new captain who right away seems a tad unhinged, and the elephant in the room.... Two of the men in this company are in love.

Once those pieces are set, we're ready to set off on a journey of brotherhood and trust which will end with everyone questioning right and wrong, and how far someone will go to hold on to their morals.

Lots of nice cinematography in some picturesque locales. Authentic fight scenes and some classic war battles keep things interesting.