Synopsis
Vietnamese guerrillas move into a village adjoining a French/US airstrip and recruit locals to help them bring it down.
Sea Of Fire
Director
Writer
Cinematography
Production Design
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Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Vietnam
Releases by Country
Vietnam
26 Aug 1965
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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Viet Minh partisans engage in termite warfare against an enemy with infinitely greater resources than they; it looks kinda aimless and desultory, but the clean, efficient narrative structure becomes apparent when the pyro effects kick in in the final reel -- all that burrowing and undermining paid off in the biggest, go-boomest, most cathartic way.
Just learning that this movie existed made it an instant must-see; how could I pass on an opportunity to see the USA narrative inverted by the very people most involved? Surprisingly free of the gratuitous "Team B is the monsterr" propaganda beats, too; I admire that.
Maybe someone that knows Viet culture can splain to me about the characters taking bong hits at random moments throughout the movie?
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Interesting portrayal of Viet Minh operations against a French/U.S. air base during the First Indochina War. This is, in most ways, a traditional heroic war movie - noble soldiers making hard sacrifices accompanied by a stirring score, culminating in a glorious, explosion-filled finale - but seeing this structure from a North Vietnamese viewpoint made it feel fresh. The film foregrounds the struggles of villagers caught in the middle of the fighting in a way never seen in American movies about Vietnam and - considering this movie was filmed during the build-up to the Second Indochina War - its portrayal of the enemies and collaborators was surprisingly nuanced. The Vietnamese surveyor working for the French was given a compelling character arc,…