Modern-day story has an inquisitive young teen unearthing the past and discovering the father she never knew by reading his diary; he died in combat before her birth, and the girl's interest spurs her war-scarred uncle to take her on an emotional visit to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. Opening in late September 1989, this film was touted in all the major newspapers as Bruce Willis' Oscar role (though he was overlooked by the Academy when the time came). Seen today, the picture doesn't seem to have any purpose except to showcase the actor's range (limited as it is) and also to squeeze dry the remaining emotions left behind by the Vietnam experience--Hollywood style. Emily Lloyd, as the kid in question, and Peggy Rea, as Mamaw, are tiresome copies of distinctly old-fashioned archetypes--the wise juvenile and the salty matriarch--used over and over in similar movie scenarios since WWII (and probably beyond). Norman Jewison directed, without an ounce of honest inspiration. Whatever discussions or suspicions are addressed in the script, they're pretty much forgotten by the finale--which does everything just shy of saluting. *1/2 from ****

How to begin. First, the good. I agree with others that Bruce Willis & Emily Lloyd were excellent. Most early Bruce is that awful smirk or nothing. I think Miss Lloyd was actually better as the girl. The movie is a sincere attempt to cover the ground of the Vietnam thing but all it really ends up doing is wallowing in a more varied assortment of stereotypes than usual. This is nice vicarious fun for those who were not involved. As far as I can tell I'm the only Vietnam ERA veteran to comment (not a combat veteran thank god). I like to flatter myself by thinking that I can comment in some measure for them. We are veterans of an ERA not a war. Most of them (the combat veterans) probably can't stand to watch let alone comment. This last bit is what really makes me hate this movie in spite of the good part above so listen up. At the most emotional part of the movie where Willis is getting teary eyed at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial with the music track building to a soft, emotional crescendo what does Mr Willis place beside the Bronze Star Medal at the wall? That's right he places (reverently) a pack of Camel cigarettes. This is what's known as a 'placement'. For those who don't know this means that the cigarettes are a paid commercial message like a spot on TV. I have to admit this is the most professional, artful, perfectly done placement I have ever seen. So good in fact that it becomes almost invisible even though it's right in front of you. A classic placement, really one for the textbooks. Also totally ruthless. It takes a third rate filmmaker like me to spot it properly & reveal it for what it is. This is beyond disrespect. Mr Willis character should have urinated on the wall instead.

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).