The early part of this movie does nothing to develop any of the characters. There is no back story there is no explanation of anything much just a short pilot briefing and then the pilots take off on a mission into Laos. The mission is top secret as Laos is not officially at war and in fact Vietnama and the USA are not fully at war at this point in history.

Even after Christian Bale gets shot down, captured and put in a prison camp the characters feel distant and it’s hard to care for any of them. The interesting point for me was viewing this 30 years after the Vietnam war and seeing the Viet Cong in a completely different light.

You can see why they treated the American servicemen so poorly in fact everyone is brutal. It is interesting to realise how effective the propaganda of the 60’s and 70’s was (even in the UK) and how our political perceptions and sympathies have changed especially over the time that the Iraq war has been on.

The story gets more interesting in the second half where Bale starts to plan for a breakout. By the end of the movie I felt that it is worth watching and by the end quite enjoyable.