''A Soldier's Sweetheart'' is a 1998 television film directed by Thomas Michael Donnelly and starring

Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox drama series ''24 (TV series), 24'' (2001–2010, 20 ...

Skeet Ulrich Skeet Ulrich (; born Bryan Ray Trout on January 20, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in popular 1990s films, including Billy Loomis in '' Scream'' (1996), Chris Hooker in '' The Craft'' (1996), and Vincent Lopiano in ' ...

, and Georgina Cates. It is based on a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by Tim O'Brien, "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong." The story was part of his book, ''

The Things They Carried ''The Things They Carried'' (1990) is a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his ex ...

'' (1990).

Cast

as Rat Kiley *

as Mark Fossie * Georgina Cates as Marianne Bell * Daniel London as Eddie Diamond * Louis Vanaria as Bobbie D * Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. as Shoeshine * Christopher Birt as Lt. Mitchell Sanders * Tony Billy as Soldier #2

Production

The film was shot in New Zealand, at Studio West in West Auckland.

Release

The film is only available on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

, and a petition has been set up at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

urging the companies that own the rights to the film to consider reissuing it in

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

format. It was also premiered at the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and feature ...

in 1998. The film received a theatrical release in Belgium in 2010.

Reception

Bob Batz from ''

Dayton Daily News The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employee ...

'' gave ''A Soldier's Sweetheart'' a very positive review, stating: "The film, based on Tim O'Brien's award-winning short story Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, is a brutal, often bloody story of the Vietnam War and how it changed many of the men - and women - who were part of it. It is filled with excellent dialogue and has enough plot twists to keep viewers riveted to their easy chairs for the entire two hours." Ken Eisner from

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

also gave the film a good review, concluding: "Just when you think all the basic Vietnam stories have been told, helmer Thomas Michael Donnelly puts a new spin on America's lost cause by viewing it from a female angle. Striving for mythic levels — although there's plenty of scary grit to it — "A Soldier's Sweetheart" taps into an aspect of warfare that transcends gender. Subject, then, is a difficult one, but extremely well-mounted pic could resonate with women if Paramount can find a way to package it for theatrical release". ''A Soldier's Sweetheart'' was nominated for two awards. One

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special" and one Golden Reel Awards for "Best Sound Editing - Television Movies of the Week - Dialogue & ADR".

References

External links