Ride the Thunder

This movie is way too politically biased. The acting is cheesy at best. I couldn't get past the 45 minute mark. The whole thing sounds like a traveling evangelist show. Bad. Bad. Bad.

While I didn't serve in Viet Nam, I remember that time well, and I served with people who did. This movie is a mix of docudrama and interviews with veterans. Those that pan that concept apparently don't watch much on the History Channel. Most of the negative reviews I read, if you click on the profile of the reviewer, you find that their negative review of this movie is the ONLY review they have posted. THAT should tell you that they specifically had a reason to bash this film. At least one reviewer called it political propaganda, but that's just what the TRUTH looks like when it isn't what you want to hear!

Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and their FTA group, committed treason, and they should've gone to prison for that. John Kerry did as well and instead ended up as a lousy Secretary of State who made a terrible deal with our enemies in Iran. The description of the changes in America and the predictions of John Ripley came true. We are living that today. Disputing that fact is futile. The decline of mainstream media in this country began when Walter Cronkite went to Viet Nam and came home and his editor told him to "report what he thought", not just "what he had seen". From that moment on, news reporting became propaganda.

Acting wasn't the best. But a great story. Sad what we left behind when we pulled out. What you learn in school isn't what really happened.

Masterfully told with great cinematography, the movie tells the stories of a South Vietnamese man and the American soldier he fought alongside. The movie grabs your attention from the beginning and you find yourself entrenched in the struggles of South Vietnamese soldier Le Ba Binh, a husband and father, expertly portrayed by actor Joseph Hieu. I found it enlightening to see the historical clips interspersed throughout, giving the moviegoer a glimpse of the perspective of the soldiers returning to the U.S. and the attitudes prevalent in our culture during that era. The shocking film footage of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, as well as the clips of now Secretary of State John Kerry as a young man give this movie a powerful historical gravity that cannot be denied. The film is very moving, very timely- given the current state of foreign affairs, and also quite entertaining.

A moving docu-drama that will leave you with tears in your eyes and pride for your country in your heart. Based on the book of the same name, this movie reveals a part of history that is largely unknown: the brotherhood that developed between American soldiers and the South Vietnamese soldiers they fought alongside and the suffering and oppression of the South Vietnamese people after the Vietnam War. This movie is a must-see for every American, but will be particularly eye-opening for many of the first generation children of the South Vietnamese refugees who have made America their adopted country. To them, Ride the Thunder bestows the gift of a richer heritage of which too many are unaware. I know this firsthand as I am one of them.