Hanoi Hilton, The (Full Frame)

VHS, R, 126 minutes, WARNER

Nearly a quarter century after Everett Alvarez was shot out of the sky over North Vietnam to become the first U.S. Prisoner held in the North, I invited him to visit the set of "The Hanoi Hilton," a painstaking reconstruction of the infamous Hoa Lo Prison where he had languished as a prisoner for 8 1/2 years. He was dumbstruck. "It was real," Alvarez said. "They had taken me back." From 1963 to 1975, 3.4 million American men and women served their country in Southeast Asia with dignity and honor. It was my goal to render a motion picture which would pay tribute to their sacrifice. From the attitudes of the North Vietnamese enemy to the visits of the American peace delegations, it is all there. I especially hope this film will remind Americans of something that never should be forgotten: our veterans are a national treasure. May God bless them all. - Writer/Director Lionel Chetwynd.