just watch it!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Background: I saw this film ten years ago (1998). I was an associate the law firm at which one of the featured POWs, Ron Bliss, was a partner. (I knew Ron in a casual, work relationship, but had never heard his story from him. He never made a big deal of it.) So, I was perhaps pre-disposed to view the film favorably due to that relationship. Perhaps this review is colored by my recollections of the film 10 years later. Perhaps that is telling (of what stays with me after a decade). I was born in 1970, after the events documented by this film took place. Growing up in public schools in the 1970s and 1980s, I wasn't taught much (and certainly not much objectively) about the war in Viet Nam. This film blew me away. Looking back ten years, it perhaps is no surprise that it took 35+ years from the events for the story to be told in this way--removed from the passions and politics of the time, with only the human elements surviving.Trying to be apolitical, I must say that the men documented in this film are genuine heroes. Not because of the situations life thrust on them, but because of how they reacted. While I can't recall all of the details of the film, ten years after viewing it, I vividly remember (and often consider when things in my life may be difficult) one of the closing comments from one of the POWs: "It's never a bad day when there's a doorknob on the inside of the door." That comment has helped me through many personal situations. Both literally and figuratively, it tells us that when we have some control over our circumstances, we have no reason to complain. I have never experienced what these men lived through, and I pray to God I never do, but I am comforted to know that the human spirit, with faith, can withstand it.Sorry to sound trite, but this this film changed my worldview. It is worth seeing. If you were born after 1968 and have any interest in history, you owe it to yourself to see this film. I am off now to find a copy on the internet so that I can show it to my kids (who were not yet born even when the film was made....)

I was fortunate enough to see this film at its sneak preview in Dallas a few years ago. This is a truly great film. The POWs featured tell their amazing, inspiring stories. They describe in graphic detail the hardships they endured, and the tremendous measures they took to survive and persevere. It also tells the stories of their families waiting at home. These men exemplified the core values of our nation's military. By the end of the film, nearly the entire audience, which was almost exclusively comprised of grown men, was in tears. Every American should see this film. This film solidifies the debt we owe to so many.

"Return with Honor" is a fascinating documentary about the men who were held prisoner at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.For me, the most compelling part of the film is that it takes the viewer into the mind-set of these men while they were there. They went into combat with their minds full of glory and honor, but they found out the hard way that war really is hell. And then when they were released, they experienced euphoria at things we take for granted, such as ice water and clean sheets.They took all sorts of torture from the guards, were humiliated for all the world to see, and yet they refused to let themselves become despondent or become indoctrinated. This is largely due to the influence of Jim Stockdale, who is not the dottering old fool he seemed to be during the 1992 Vice-Presidential debate. In this film, he comes across as a leader anyone should be proud to follow.While, in general this film is very good and very moving, there were a few minor problems. First of all, there was only so much footage of the men taken while they were prisoners. This means that during much of the film, we see the same shots of the prison as it now stands over and over again. Also, the men's stories of torture are so similar, that at times it seems like overkill when one more man tells of his ordeal. Another problem is that the perspectives of the men's wives is given short shrift, and the perspectives of their children are completely ignored. One final problem is that, in order to give the film a feel-good vibe, the domestic unrest is skimmed over and the welcome home festivities are exaggerated.Overall, I would say that a documentary of this type has been overdue to the American public for twenty-five years. While this is not the great film it could (and should) have been, it is still very good and I recommend it to anyone who knows anyone else who was in Vietnam.

I saw this movie this afternoon (3/21/99) at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and it was an incredible film experience. It documents the real-life experiences of a handfull of real-life POW's shot down over North Vietnam. We find out what it feels like to be a hot-shot fighter pilot. We find out what it's like being a guest in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison. We get to feel a small example of what it must have felt like to finally be released it what in some cases was over seven years of internment. Many of them were in tears. So were many movie patrons.If you can gauge a movie by the emotions it evokes, then it wins. I was beginning to forget how absurd the entire situation was; about how most of us began believing in the war and ended up hating it. A powerful film indeed!