A Bright Shining Lie

This HBO adaptation of Neil Sheehan’s nonfiction book presents the Vietnam War through the prism of military adviser John Paul Vann (Bill Paxton), a true believer who waged war against Asian communism with high-minded conviction, never quite grasping the folly and futility of America’s involvement. A Bright Shining Lie‘s scenes of warfare and political turmoil are rendered in bold, colorful strokes, but Vann himself remains a quick sketch. Both a two-faced adulterer and a tower of martial integrity, he should have been an intriguing, conflicted antihero, but Paxton’s Vann is little more than a convenient symbol for military misadventure. C+