The Children of an Lac (1980 TV Movie) User Reviews (3)

A moving true story

[tedmccarron · 7/10 · 24 January 2009]

I had not seen this movie in nearly thirty year until this week, when I watched it from a VHS tape that I ordered used from amazon.com. It tells of the plight of Vietnamese orphans and the struggle to rescue them by flying them to America before Saigon's impending fall to the communists. It is interesting to see Ina Balin play herself, and Shirley Jones does a fine job of portraying Betty Tisdale. The Vietnamese children also did a very good job acting, sometimes nearly moving me to tears.

One small problem I had with the film, was the constant reference to the "Vietcong." There was a scene at the beginning of ARVN soldiers chasing down Vietcong guerrillas wearing their "black pajamas", and there was much talk about "if the Vietcong take Saigon." Actually, the Vietcong (officially called the National Liberation Front) were nearly wiped out seven years earlier during the Tet offensive. These communist guerrillas were aided and controlled by the much more formidable North Vietnamese army, aka NVA. It was the NVA that actually fought most of the war after 1968 and it was certainly them with their well stocked arsenal of Soviet tanks, rockets, and modern equipment that converged on Saigon in 1975, not the decimated Vietcong.

I also appreciated the scenes of South Vietnamese soldiers rushing about during the final days of the war. In most Vietnam war related movies the ARVN doesn't even seem to exist, leaving many historically illiterate viewers to think the war was between "Vietnam" and America. Although I'm a white American, I keep a South Vietnamese flag hanging in my window as a memorial to them. I also appreciate how the movie accurately portrayed who the good guys and who the bad guys were. In this era of political correctness where the communists are portrayed as dedicated heroes and the Americans as baby killers, this movie is refreshing.

You too will feel the desperation of these people as they fight bureaucratic red tape to save the orphans from the communists. Although you can tell that the movie was on a "made for TV" budget, the drama and the suspense make for a very good movie.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! It would have been nice if at the end the movie would have told us what happened to the children over ten years old.

The children as they arrived in America. Maybe spoiler!

[dixiegirlz · 9/10 · 19 December 2012]

I was at Ft. Benning, Ga. when these orphans arrived. They were housed in a remote area of the military base, in an unused school. There was a call out for people to help care for the children and babies. Many of us Army wives volunteered, myself included. We were shuttled into the secluded area by MPs by the car load.

The children were scared in played amongst themselves....you could tell they'ed been through bad times. They just didn't have the typical playfulness of children not exposed to war and hard times. None were nearly as healthy looking as portrayed in the film. The babies were so small compared to my knowledge of American children. The name tags or records on the beds would give ages, and most children that were two or three appeared very small, like 6 month olds. These kids were malnourished and many had intestinal problems. They kept us hopping caring for them and the orderlies and staff from the nearby army hospital were always there to help when we ran into a situation we were not familiar with.

It was interesting for me to stumble upon a movie made about this event. We caretakers had no idea what really transpired in Saigon before their arrival in the spring of 1975. So now I know most of the story. All the children were adopted out and I found that they had a 35 year anniversary in 2010.

Narratable by me.

[psychonhourglasseyes · 5/10 · 16 February 2021]

I have looked upon the words of place names that show up as Swanlock in penmanship. Now whether it is An Lac, Xuan Loc, or Xuan Lac, each of these two places is or was miles apart. I am left in the unknownwise no different than the statuswise all the same, in real life, having an immediate family member gone now for over 51 years. Well, no need to ramble, I am here to make a review about only The Children of An Lac. Here it is.

There are likely missing parts to this movie, however, there are moments that are certainly not deleted or missing, and they are included. To really look closely at those who are in it can tell the viewer an amount of information that they could be right about, and all. This becomes more likely as noticeable as it progresses through its entire known duration.

Every time I watch this movie, which is not often, I honestly am able to notice for real, I learn something different each time, and that is worth the time.

I never knew about this movie until just these recent years lately.

Near the end of this movie, I watch how eyes move, and I truly believe that how they bat eyes or roll eyes can tell me plenty about how thinking really may have been, although there is really no way to know for sure what feelings really came forth, so that they could be spoken, and known. The character who makes use of a crutch, not a staff, is most distinctly noticeable, as such.

Extended scenes and deleted scenes, and maybe alternate scenes as a bonus could have been interesting, especially a wide field view.

In, or near its beginning, there is a scene that shows livestock being tended in a trail, I suspect that it might be something that could have included the Saola, or Vu Quang Ox, a very rare bovid, although the scene is short, the trail is seen and known to that which survives, and will survive.

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