The Hanoi Hilton (1987) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by princess 🦋 ★½ 4

  I saw this the day John McCain died but I didn't know he had died yet so I'm pretty sure I killed him

• Review by David Raposa ★★ 2

  Would you believe a movie about Vietnam POWs produced by Cannon Films & written / directed by a man who would later go on to found "a support and networking group for politically conservative members of the Hollywood elite" is a high-minded turgid jingoistic slog? & I use "high-minded" loosely, given (among other things) there's a gong hit accompanying the movie's title card & the final scene is soundtracked by a triumphant / hilarious power ballad worthy of a Karate Kid sequel. In between those two moments are three types of scenes: POWs talking amongst themselves, POWs talking with their captors, and POWs monologuing about their family or life (usually with a "Taps" variation playing in the background, because a movie about POWs…

• Review by Waldo ★★★½

  Never seen this one, popped on Hulu. Its the story of captured American soldiers and the prison camp they were housed in. The most fucked up Hilton ever. Rats, shitty food and room service, torture, beatings, annoying radio dj Hanoi Hannah and we know who was that vapid actress that visited the Hilton. Its very well made, dramatic plus theres a big scene between a puertorican and a cuban that was a standout scene for me.

• Review by Filipe Furtado ★★

  Cannon answer to Platoon: a very serious 2-hour masochist trip with Vietnam War prisoners of war. Very punishing and single-minded. Plenty of good actors, led by Michael Moriarty, who are mostly asked to go hysterical. There are lots of scenes with Vietnamese pushing soldiers to a mental break point. It is a fascinating object in so far as the Reagan years are heavy with pow fantasies, but not something that wants to be somber, even it is probably duller than most of them.

• Review by Hugo ★★½

  História real que perde um pouco da força pelo ritmo lento e as atuações ruins.

  Para ler mais: cinema-filmeseseriados.blogspot.com/2023/03/hanoi-hilton.html

• Review by Alex 🇺🇦 ★★★½

  Underrated war drama, Hanoi Hilton manages to be a far better feature than one might expect. With a plot focusing on the infamous titular prison that has come to be known as the Hanoi Hilton where several American POW's were imprisoned during the Vietnam War, the film has a good cast of actors, compelling story and competent direction that makes this one of the more overlooked Vietnam War films. This i s a very good feature that presents a different type of war feature and tends to focus on the POW's of Vietnam's most notorious prisons.

  I found the film to be quite well done, especially considering that the film doesn't seem to be held in high regard, and although…

• Review by Andrew Franklin ★★★½

  A semi-biographical film about the infamous camp that housed many American POWs (most famously John McCain) during the Vietnam War

• Review by Todd Carper ★★★

  53.5*

  Personally, I liked this a lot.

  From RT:
  U.S. prisoners of war (Michael Moriarty, Jeffrey Jones, Paul Le Mat) suffer torture and propaganda at an infamous prison in North Vietnam.

  Ranked Lists:
  1987:
  letterboxd.com/ilwacocinema/list/year-1987/
  War Films:
  letterboxd.com/ilwacocinema/list/war-films/
  Prison Films:
  letterboxd.com/ilwacocinema/list/prison-films/

• Review by Brian J. "Tyrannorabbit" Wright ★

  There's no good reason Cannon Films couldn't have made a quality, serious drama out of Vietnam War POW time-doin'. But they did it by stocking it with your typical Cannon villains and the lily-livered liberals who aid and abet them through will or ignorance, including a Jane Fonda stand-in.

  Cannon macho asshole bullshit is generally the stuff we like Cannon for. Here it doesn't come in the form of 'splosions and ripped pecs, it's taking an insistently triumphalist tone in the endurance of the POW's - we might've lost the war, but we survived this so we won, suck my balls, fucker! I could buy that in a better movie without cartoon villains like that English newshound, but here it's…

• Review by RJSit10 ★★½

  The New York Times got it right: "earnest but clumsy." Its unfortunate mistake is being a 1980s movie about a 1970s experience, and desperately trying to find its inner action picture. It is difficult to draw out the narrative tension in a story being told in morse-code knuckle knocks (and the way the film works around that technical challenge is terribly corny and as artificial as a telephone monologue). Its staginess might have been better on a stage. Still, we get to rediscover Paul LeMat, and wonder whatever why Michael Moriarty and David Morse having done "True West" together, and spontaneously buy McCain's book on Kindle. You've got time; they are still tapping introductions.

• Review by Dan O'Neill ★★

  You can tell why it's so loved by dads and vets. It's not exactly the most complex war drama out there and it typically doesn't have anything else to say besides "foreigners bad, liberals bad". But I guess it gets the job and its point across.

• Review by wee_see_toe ★½

  This would benefit from a remake! And a serious rewrite as well!