Dennis Flanagan

The jury is in: we DON’T need a “Black Rambo”. This was a mish-mash of tired S. Lee gimmicks, gratuitous gore, and bad writing. Some good acting by Lindo and Boseman is not enough to make this film watchable. And all the other actors suffered through Lee’s bad or indifferent directing. The history of Black Americans in The Vietnam War is an essential topic, but Lee’s handling of it here was superficial and scattershot. Hackneyed scenes of the Westerners in S.E. Asia with their stereotypical attitudes and over-preachy dialogue. The humor in the film didn’t work for me. In fact it was off-putting and insulting to Asians, which was a running theme in the film. I felt the overly graphic gore detracted from the serious themes and emotions being explored, while at the same time the actors reactions to it seemed too mild and gotten over too quickly. The only performance of note was Lindo’s, yet even it was hard to watch at times and hampered by bad writing and directing. I am an American who has lived in S.E. Asia for 10 years and was alive during the Vietnam War, and I was insulted and angered by this film. Lee should put down the writer’s pen and stick to directing, if he’s still got anything left. This film was terrible - dated, confusing, and amateurish. There are much better ways to explore the history of Afro Americans in Vietnam than this tripe.