Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Hoa Xuande, Robert Downey Jr., Fred Nguyen Khan, Vy Le, Phan Gia Nhat Linh, Tom Dang, Toan Le, Tien Pham, Duy Nguyen, Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, Scott Ly, Alan Trong, Kieu Chinh, Sandra Oh, Joseph Hieu, Diem Truong, Quinn Hoàng, VyVy Nguyen, David Duchovny.
Each nation arguably has fought a war that they seem to be forever obsessed with, one that routinely sneaks into the art and the conscious on offer, a kind of reminder of ‘The finest hour’ and the call for a patriotic stance in the face of a different adversity or gruelling national crisis.
Great Britain harks back to coal black pictures of World War Two, the French think back with repeated mantra to the days of the Revolution, and The United States of America, whether their public realise it or not, or instinctively embrace it, has found the images and bravado of the war in Vietnam to be their Nadir clothed and dressed in Hollywood glitz.
Every war is brutof conflicthas ever been fought with even the tiniest shred of purpose framed by artistic licence, but in modern times, since the advent of mass information and gruesome daily statistics thrown on screen, Vietnam has been a tower of conflict reaching into every home, every medium possible dedicated to information imparting, and in many ways entertaining, the masses with deception and untruths…a spy’s great charm captured for all time in the most elegant way, the disinformation of the truth.
The Sympathizer, a seven-part television series that deals with the image of war through the eyes of a man raised from two cultures, on one side the French colonial system, and the other by virtue of his mother’s birthright in the Asian country, feels almost unique, especially in the eyes of viewers raised on a diet of propaganda that often proclaims America as a willing and complex saviour of the free thinking western, capitalist, ideals.
The series is a reminder that at times we are a product of the words we have paid attention to, the political ideology thrust down our throats, and with Robert Downey Jr. giving a seriously brilliant performance across various characters depicting almost every facet of the American industrial message, it becomes apparent that the West, the United States in particular, is itself a message of the absurd when it comes to the civility of truth.
Much praise must be proclaimed at the feet of Hoa Xuande as the sympathetic former Captain of Police, a man of two hemispheres enclosed in a conscious and a battle for his soul, a man to whom was loyal to the Communist thought but who couldn’t live in the damage wrought by the victor.
It is to this fine young actor that every scene, every demand seems to hang upon, and when in scenes with the dramatically polished Sandra Oh, David Duchovny, and Fred Nguyen Khan, stands out with humility and grace.
A detailed, visually stunning indictment of a period of history that is amongst the most sorrowful acts of the 20th Century; cunning, brutal, shrouded within its mystery, The Sympathizer is not to be missed.
Ian D. Hall