Every Oliver Stone Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Heaven And Earth is the third film Oliver Stone made on the Vietnam War, but the last to be released. It arrived in 1993 to a significantly lessened critical reception than its contemporaries. It's a more humanistic focus that looks at the Vietnamese side of the conflict on a closer level.

It's an adaptation of two biographies; "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" and "Child of War: Women of Peace". To cover both books, two main characters make up the film's narrative; American Gunnery Sargent Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones) and Vietnamese civilian Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le). Both are irrecevably changed by war and the film swaps between the two perspectives for much of its runtime.

It's an incredibly dark production that isn't afraid to show the horrors of war committed against civilians. Le Ly in particular is savagely brutalised by both the South Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Simultaneously, Butler grows more disillusioned with the battle and their individual journeys eventually interweave.

While it had its components in the right place, the end result is less than impressive, especially when it comes to the performance of its lead actress and overall tone. Stone's filmmaking style doesn't quite allow for the kind of emotion you'd expect from the story it tries to tell.