It is even more difficult when there is much about the film that I admire. Director Barbara Sonneborn, who was widowed in 1968 when her husband was killed fighting in Vietnam, made the film after returning to the site where her husband died. During her trip, Ms. Sonneborn met and interviewed many Vietnamese women who lost their husbands and lovers during the war. She was accompanied by a Vietnamese-American interpreter originally from the South named Xuan Ngoc Nguyen, who eventually becomes one of the film's key subjects.
People suffer on all sides regardless of skin color, class background or social status.
The interviewees are selected with great care. On the American side, they include white, black and native American widows. On the Vietnamese side, women from different regions and generations are questioned. The interviews reflect another kind imbalance. All of the American widows in the film question the legitimacy of their husband's participation in the war.