Sunday | June 4, 2006 9:00 pm

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

Screening on Film

Directed by Bill Couturié.
US, 1987, 35mm, color and b&w, 87 min.

One of the more widely acclaimed accounts of the Vietnam War, this made-for-HBO film, which received honors at the Emmy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival, is astounding in its simple presentation. Director Bill Couturié combines film materials from the NBC-TV archives, the Pentagon, and private Super-8 collections with audio performances of actual letters from serving soldiers. The readings—performed by Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Ellen Burstyn, among others—capture both the mundane aspects of life in between battles and the longing of soldiers to be true to their mission and come home safely.