Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

This beautifully crafted documentary brings home the tragedy of the Vietnam war in ways well out of the reach of feature films. Nothing is re-enacted, and the interweaving of newsreel and amateur footage puts you right there next to the bloody stumps and the booby-traps in the elephant grass. The letters home - read by Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, Tom Berenger, Robin Williams among others - range from family ordinary to the staring horror of Joseph Conrad's Kurtz. Tears and fear are a constant refrain. An intensely moving and disturbing experience.