WATCH: Soldiers fall in love in the jungles of Vietnam in this moving gay war drama
Love In Country still manages to deliver something unexpected and rare: A war movie about gay men.Set in Vietnam in 1968 during the early days of the Tet Offensive, it follows a U.S.
Army infantry sent on a dangerous “phoenix mission” to kidnap a contact from the Northern Vietnamese Army, a.k.a. the NVA.Admittedly, it’s not the most romantic of settings, but Love In Country still makes time to explore the relationship of two gay soldiers, Sgt.
Ian Alexander (David Garber) and Sgt. John Reese (Michael Southworth).Talk about finding love in a hopeless place…A post shared by Love In Country (@loveincountrymovie)Well before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” this was a world where servicemen could be discharged simply for being homosexual, but reports have shown that the Army was so short on personnel during the Vietnam War that some gay men were admitted to serve.For Alexander and Reese that means they’re expected to keep their sexuality a secret, but that becomes more and more difficult as they begin to fall for one another, and their mutual attraction becomes obvious to their fellow infantrymen.Further complicating matters is their commanding office, Army Captain John Heinrick (Vincent van Hinte), who is a truly blood-thirsty loose cannon, calling to mind Marlon Brando’s disturbed Colonel Kurtz in the seminal Vietnam drama Apocalypse Now.
Driven by his own dangerous impulses, Heinrick doesn’t care who becomes a casualty so long as he completes the mission at hand.A post shared by Love In Country (@loveincountrymovie)Love In Country is co-written and co-directed by Richard Gayton, who has non-combat military experience during the Vietnam War, and then spent many years working as a Navy psychologist.
