Movie Critique: A Bright Shining Lie This movie, based on actual events of a man in the Vietnam War, gives a fairly good overview of what actually happened. As it is a movie, however, it may be presumed that some events are dramatized more than they actually were. John Paul Vann, a civilian who seems to struggle with getting ahead in the military department, seems to have ideas that others do not that could help win the war. He is relentlessly pressing for them, giving conferences and releasing articles that lead to his expulsion from the military. However, he is telling the truth to the public, which many others refused to do. This credibility gap in the Vietnam era made people lose trust in the government, while individuals continued to show the weaknesses of the military and government officials to the public. His ideas were shown to be innovative, and he has a better understanding of the Vietnamese than many of the other military men seem to, such as with his talks with the rice about the villages in Vietnam. His reinstatement within the military and being given military power, while only a civilian, shows the underlying knowledge even within the military, that something isn’t going right; Westmoreland, losing significantly to General Giap’s clever military tactics, needed more local support. The portrayal of the Vietnamese villagers within this movie is particularly significant; it is very important to note their role in Vietnam’s eventual victory. When attacked by outside forces, having their villages destroyed and friends and family killed, the villagers took the side of the guerrilla fighters. The film did show accurately the immense technological advantage that the invading American forces had against the guerrilla fighters, and partially addressed the different culture in the Vietnamese villages, with the importance of family ties and the small, isolated populations. As far as