In Spring 1975, no longer fearing reprisals from Richard Nixon, the North Vietnamese Army began to rapidly retake South Vietnam and close in on the port metropolis Saigon. With orders from the White House to evacuate the American embassy and a stalwart ambassador (who had lost his only son in the war) refusing to admit defeat, envoys and soldiers, surreptitiously and against orders in many cases, carried out the mass evacuation of thousands of endangered South Vietnamese. Rory Kennedy's extraordinary and moving documentary depicts goodness and courage in the face of disaster and defeat through the use of tremendous footage and storytelling devices in addition to fascinating interviews from many on the ground.
**** out of ****
