Her latest, The Last Days of Saigon, released about 6 months ago, chronicles the events surrounding the exit from South Vietnam of the United States and its mission after 10 years, of what was then called America's longest war. The date was April 30, 1975.
She followed the format of many documentarians, gathering archival film footage and blending those clips with recent interviews with various persons who were present at the time. Those interviews included then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the last man out, former Marine Juan Valdez, former marine Captain Richard Armitage, a US Navy commander of the USS Kirk which rescued hundreds of Vietnamese fleeing the on rushing Communist forces descending en masse on Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.
What one takes away from the film is not a gratuitous effort of assembly of images, but a meaningful pictorial of chaos as the final pages of the final chapter of 10 years of war and 58,000 American lives and more than a million Vietnamese lives. We know that the killing did not stop with our exit, but moved into a different phase with a Communist lead political environment.
One could use the film as a definition of despair, a definition of defeat, or a definition of escape and survival. For those under the age of 40, there is not much of a connection with the images shown in the film. However, the images do have an impact, and a powerful one at that. The clips of helicopters being pushed overboard into the South China Sea are unforgettable. We know how much they cost-a lot! And more were on the way, loaded with fleeing civilians. An ignominious chapter of late 20th century history, 40 years ago.
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