Oliver Stone visits My Lai massacre site to research Vietnam movie

saigontoine — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:24:00 +0700

(c)AFP
Thu Sep 6, 3:01 PM ET - HANOI (AFP)

Oscar-winning US filmmaker Oliver Stone Thursday visited the Vietnamese village of My Lai to research a movie about the infamous massacre there, one of the darkest chapters of the Vietnam War.

Thu Sep 6, 3:01 PM ET HANOI (AFP) - Oscar-winning US filmmaker Oliver Stone Thursday visited the Vietnamese village of My Lai to research a movie about the infamous massacre there, one of the darkest chapters of the Vietnam War.

Stone, who served as an infantryman in the conflict and later won best director Oscars for his war dramas "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July", said he wanted to see the "killing fields" for himself, state media said.

My Lai, located in central Quang Ngai province, is the hamlet where US soldiers went on a bloody rampage and killed up to 504 civilians, many of them unarmed women, children and elderly, on March 16, 1968.

Pham Thanh Cong, director of the My Lai Museum, said local people welcomed the planned movie project, which would serve as a reminder of the "painful and deadly past" and which he said would "help educate future generations."

"If the film is to be shot in My Lai, it would be a symbol of the US admitting their crimes in the war in Vietnam," he told AFP.

Revelations surrounding the massacre, which reached the US public more than a year after the event, sparked international outrage and played a key role in turning American public opinion against the war in Vietnam.

The only US officer to be punished over the massacre was Lieutenant William Calley, who served four and a half months in prison.

Travelling with Stone on the three-day research trip, producer John Kilik said the director hoped to start shooting the movie "Pinkville", the soldiers' nickname for My Lai, by year's end, the Thanh Nien daily said.

Stone, during his Vietnam visit, also wished to call on his old friend Phung Le Ly, author of the memoir "When Heaven And Earth Changed Places," the basis for Stone's film "Heaven And Earth."

"Pinkville" will feature Bruce Willis as William R. Peers, the army general who investigated the My Lai murders, Variety has reported.

Actifilms Saigon - Tag - My Lai

Oliver Stone visits My Lai massacre site to research Vietnam movie