This unique documentary clearly portrays some of the tragic effects of war on wives of soldiers from both sides of the Vietnam War.(SPOILER) The director (whose husband was killed in action in that war) blames the US and the South Vietnamese governments for those tragedies and fails to mention the dreadful atrocities inflicted by the Vietnamese Communist guerrillas on many innocent South Vietnamese and indigenous tribal men, women, children.Despite this slanted retrospective look, the film is well made and worth seeing. (SPOILER) The film's most redeeming premise is that war indelibly alters the lives of all who suffer the trauma and loss that occurs during wartime.

We ran this film at the "Normal" theater, for the Illinois Wesleyan May term series. The director, Barbara Sonneborn, introduced the film, and was on hand after for questions.Our audience was mixed with college students and adults. I am sure the students saw it has history, but the adults had lived this as history. I was one of the adults. Not until this film, did I see the Vietnam war, as more than just a page of history that I missed.During the showing, all you could hear besides the film, was the muffled sound of the projector. After the film, there were 200 plus people on their feet to applaud Barbara.

This is a heartbreaking Oscar-nominated film, 7 years in the making, that brings a war I've only known as history, being 20, to vivid, poignant, and brutally honest life. Sonnenborn brings the Vietnam war home from a bold new perspective- the war's widows, both American and Vietnamese. Sonnenborn herself is such a widow, and so the film's journey to the past begins with her own personal trek to Vietnam, searching for the ordinary field where her husband Jeff was killed. As much as the film depicts the spiritual suffering of American soldiers and their families, it reveals the Vietnamese in the same suffering, a decent people forced to do the unimaginable to survive in war.Sonnenborn brilliantly combines peaceful images of the modern Vietnam with brutal up-front news footage from the war. The soundtrack is a mix of atmospheric music, the testimony of Vietnamese survivors describing their ordeal, and American widows reciting their husbands' words, through letters sent home during the war.I don't know why it is we constantly separate the documentary genre- this is a drama, a social and political film, and just because it has no major actors and relies totally on reality should not disqualify it from showing in your local multiplex. It is a powerful, memorable picture, not just "another documentary." It makes you think and reflect about why we went into war, and it provokes many of the emotions for which we all seek film. "Regret to Inform" piercingly reveals how the souls, the humanity, of soldiers and civilians die in war. Seek this film out, whether you lived through Vietnam or not. It will affect you.

This film deeply moved me. I've seen other documentaries about the War, and forgotten them the next morning. I'm still thinking about this one.The juxtaposition of beautiful scenery and truly horrible war stories is very affecting. Everyone in the theater was completely silent throughout the entire film, and EVERYONE stayed for the credits.I think that the women in the movie have a certain emotional honesty that makes the movie much more powerful. It's important to understand the impact that the war had on families and children. Most documentaries focus on the lives of the American soldiers. The music is also very appropriate... It's hopeless trying to review this as a film, I just urge you to watch it.