Lacking Depth, Understanding, and Sensitivities

Rating: 1/10 (19 June 2020)

Self-aggrandizing and pretentious. It veers you in the wrong direction, but the film creators think that's okay. It's not okay for people who understand history, racism, and Vietnam.
A movie about Black Americans subjected to war by White American political leaders that classify them as secondary citizens. The actors come out of the war with PTSD, losing themselves in the battlefield, and still feeling the pain that White America inflicted and still inflicts on them today.
However, it tackles the injustices that they've been subjected to with war provocations.
For example, the scene in the Vietnamese floating boat market where a poor boat merchant tries to sell the main actor a live chicken (how absurd, in a floating market, really?), and he refuses, calling him a "Gook."
The merchant replies, "You killed my mother and father," and threatens to kill the black former GI for not purchasing his live chicken and calling him a "Gook."
I mean, how absurd is this? If you had an inkling of understanding for Vietnamese culture, you would know that Vietnamese people are not like that at all. The majority of the South population (where this movie is shot) is made up of people under age 40. In fact, approximately 70% are.
In fact, they love Americans. They love Western culture. Native Vietnamese people have opened up bars like "Apocalypse Now" for Americans. Vietnamese-Americans provide the largest amount of remittances to Vietnamese citizens. Americans in general are one of the largest contributors to their GDP. American business owners provide dollars to the booming textile industry.
This really hits me: Why would you shoot a battle scene in 2020 between Americans and Vietnamese?
One common theme: Americans are responsible for war crimes, and so are Vietnamese.
Please tell me how pointing the finger at someone promotes change.
How does this change racial division? It appears to stir it up.
So this is coming to terms with inequality: degrading and being condescending toward Vietnamese people?
The whole movie I found my blood pressure rising, and oftentimes wanting to close my eyes because the movie was filmed in Vietnam, and yet it failed to grasp the current state of mind of Vietnamese people, which are mostly forward-thinking.
When you group all Vietnamese people into what you perceive to be a Vietnamese countryside way of life: slow, poor, unable to move past war sentimentality, and always seeking retribution against Americans - you fail to understand Vietnam.
This leaves you with nothing but flashbacks of recorded history and old stereotypes.
I suggest you don't watch this movie if you fall under the following: 1) You're Vietnamese; 2) You've been to Vietnam and understand the culture, daily life, and way of thinking; and 3) You're not easily fascinated with creators that convey that they want social change in their own country, but show no cultural sensitivities when they arrive as tourists or filmmakers in other people's countries....