The Long-Haired Warriors (59:50)
Women have a long and rich tradition as fierce warriors. Vietnamese women fought against French, South Vietnamese and American troops in the decades after World War II. In a land of ancient art and religion, poetry and song, and resplendent physical beauty, these women endured the horrors of war as active combatants. Some have experienced many harrowing years of torture and imprisonment. In the end, all shared victory in defense of their homes and country. But, as is always the case in war, their victory is not without contradictions, losses and sorrows. This is the story told by Mel Halbach in his film The Long-Haired Warriors.
Halbach began her Vietnam odyssey in 1991 and seven years and five trips to Vietnam later, after the difficulties and frustrations of navigating seas of bureaucratic formalities and oceans of green tea, Mel gives these rich portraits of elderly women of war, long suffering and kindness. .
We meet Thieu Thi Tan, who likes to be called /"Dany/", sent to the famous Tiger cages on the island of Con Dao in 1968. She was only 15 years old. Dany and her older sister Tao were imprisoned for attempting to bomb a police station. . In the film, we see Dany return to Con Dao where, in front of a cell with its bed made of concrete slabs and its foot irons, its open latrines, its cramped darkness and its stifling heat, she recounts the miserable details of her life as a prisoner. We get a glimpse of the price she and her comrades paid. We understand her intense involvement in Vietnamese female warrior culture. We also learn of the troubling and ambiguous role played by the U.S. government during his captivity.
Ms. Le Hong Quan led 100 female commandos during the American War. In a powerfully moving scene, she recounts, through tears and intensely present memories of the experience, how she lost her arm in combat and was captured, tortured and interrogated.
The Long-Haired Warriors introduces us to women who were peasants, intellectuals, Buddhist nuns, and members of the aristocratic classes of the time before they were led into armed revolution. Many now reflect openly on their hopes and fears for the future as they experience the impact of global capitalism and consumerism on Vietnamese culture, wondering aloud if another revolution might one day be necessary.
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