Eric Roberts should have won the highest award their is for his part in this. I was 15 years old when my class visited Washington D.C. and they were just starting to build the memorial. I was too young to think about all that went into the making of it all. I remember the war, but very little and I remember all the broken men who came back and had the burden of surviving the aftermath, including my two uncles. When I saw this movie, I was en captured by the entire theme of it as I watched the bitterness of the vets complain about benefits, which is something I can relate to all too well to Jan's simple request of a simple memorial to the rallying of support to the people realizing that their anger was terrible misplaced in these young men to the final building to the actual opening. It was all very emotional for me.
I do not understand why it has not been shown again on Memorial Day or Veterans Day. I thought there were many tender moments in the film such as when Jan received the letter from the kid who sent him five dollars to have their father's name that inspired him to have ALL the names put on, to the winner of the contest to construct the memorial who just happened (as I remember to be) a young Asian girl who was adopted because of all of the orphans (I think.) And the scene where the engravers where engraving the names and the one engraver burst out into tears because it she came to her brothers name.
The final scenes were about when the memorial was open and the people came and when the white elderly lady came and the black vet asked her who she knew and she said her son and how he held her hand and helped her with the flowers she wanted to put there and there was no thought of race there, just humanity. I think one of my favorite parts was when the brother was there to find his brother's name only to see him there after 20 years to find out that he wasn't dead, but just lost for so many years.
This movie has remained in me for many years and I would love to see it again. I think that the title speaks for itself because this nation needed to heal from the Vietnam war and we needed to forgive ourselves and the young men and women who were over there and I think the movie did what it set out to do. I think it is very important to point out that this was done through the people and not through our government, which makes it all the more special.
