In Country (1989)

Memorable, crazy movie

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

We almost didn't watch this movie, based on the IMDb ratings, but something told us to have a look anyway. What an excellent movie, and the best acting I ever saw Bruce Willis do before. If you have watched this move and haven't rated it yet, please do to help others know how good this is. This is a touching movie from the perspective of the daughter of a Vietnam soldier killed in the line of duty. The use of flashbacks was done well in this movie, as some movies make flashbacks too often and in unrelated order. The relationships among the characters were believable. This is a movie worth watching. Although it's a bit old, it didn't matter. This movie is timeless and could easily be related to the soldiers and their loved ones of any war.

It's easy to see why so few people seem to have connected with this underrated movie. There's no nudity, no violence, no killing, no superstars chewing up the scenery. It is, instead, a quiet, maybe too slow-moving, film about a teenage girl at the cusp of womanhood trying to learn about what Vietnam had been like for her father, who was killed there. She also begins to see her ex-G.I. uncle clearly, for the first time, as a survivor of something terrible. In Country is about the Vietnam War only as in the sense that it's also about a family's history whose impact bridges the generations. It's less about events than it is about becoming a grown-up in an America that has a sixty-second attention span and a fifteen-minute memory. Emily Lloyd, who you'd never guess is English, does a beautifully sensitive job in the starring role, and Bruce Willis, as her uncle, turns in a very fine, very dignified performance.

I had trouble establishing any meaningful connection to the characters in this film, presumably because of a lack of connection to those who fought (and lived or died) in Vietnam. The story here is primarily that of Samantha Hughes (a flamboyant and somewhat over-confident young woman played well by Emily Lloyd) and her jaded (or hardened?) uncle, Emmett Smith (Bruce Willis). This movie, to some extent, reminded me of the uneasy relationship between Randy Quaid and Ilan-Mitchell Smith's characters in "The Wild Life" where Smith's character misunderstood the war and idolized his veteran buddy (played by Randy Quaid) who apparently desperately wanted to forget it. Emily Lloyd's character is not quite as naive, but in reminiscing about her late father, wondering what kind of soldier he was, she does display a certain degree of similar tendencies. The ending of the film, on the other hand, is more like a slight tribute to those who died as the family visit the Vietnam memorial (the events in this movie are somewhat non-linear and scattered).Not an overall bad movie, but not a great one either simply for lack of a clear story and probably, not such great development of characters (though I do commend Lloyd's performance).

I like this movie very much. It's a real good movie ! Every part of the film is so real.The war seems nobody wants to remember.The movie's of a family face to cure the wounds of Vietnam. It catches the thrill of war and the disillusionment of soldiers. It'd be a good present for the Vietnam soldiers !The movie cures some retired American soldiers and their family. We have Bruce Willis , Emily Lloyd & Joan Allen on the movie, and this is another good Bruce Willis movie I ever seen before. He acts successfully to be a reclusive vet! If you don't claim for traditional Hollywood movies, this movie would suit u to watch. God bless the American soldiers !