At the time, I really enjoyed this film. It was exciting, it was interested, and I actually cared for the characters. I thought the opening special effects were a bit suss, but apart from that, I thought it was a good fun, and dramatic movie. But, in retrospect, I have a lot of issues with this film. That said, I still like the film – it kept me entertained for 126 minutes, but it does have its floors. This film is based on a true story of a US air pilot who was shot down while flying over Laos, during a classified mission during the Vietnam War. After the plane comes crashing to the ground, within no time at all, he’s captured and put into a prisoners camp – no surprise there! Not accepting the certain death ahead, he decides to craft a plan to escape with the several other American prisoners of War. This film was full of clichés. It started off very predictably, with US soldiers, being very cocky and arrogant, as they fool around before their mission. But the main problem I had was that the film was pretty unrealistic. Who shot down the plane? The whole opening happened so fast, that you didn’t have a chance to work out why it happened. The main character looked and acted as if he was enjoying his time at the prison. He was also very healthy looking, considering none of the prisoners ate anything of real substance. Why did the locals randomly kill the American solider with machetes? Why not kill them both? Why did the American’s throw away their guns? Why didn’t they capture the local who caught the fish, seeing as they had weapons, they were starving, and the man had nothing to protect him? Why was the ending so “this man’s a hero”? It was a bit over-the-top! I know this is supposed to be based on a true story – but there are just so many things I can’t see as really happening. Although a lot of people seem to disagree with me, I also feel this is a very “pro America” film. The American’s were “so good” and the people of the Vietnamese jungle “so bad”. I’m sure they weren’t the nicest people on earth – they did torture him after all, but the way the script was structured kind of disturbed me. I didn’t feel as if the enemy were real people, but instead, just the enemy. As I said, at the time, I really enjoyed watching it. Even after, I felt satisfied. I rate this film highly. It’s just that there were a lot of things that didn’t sit right. The actor behind Dengler was the main issue. He always seemed more “drunk” than someone who’s just been tortured and locked up. Finally, there was no perspective of time. The characters seemed to know what day it was, but the audience had no idea. Either way, I still liked it.