Rating:

In 1965, Navy Commander Jim Stockdale’s fighter plane is shot down. He’s captured by the North Vietnamese and sent to Hoa Lo prison (aka the “Hanoi Hilton”) where Stockdale (Woods) is subjected to almost daily torture. During nearly a decade of internment, he develops a clandestine communications system with other prisoners and organizes a resistance group against their inhumane captors.

Stockdale’s wife Sybil (Alexandra) has been urged by the military to keep quiet about her husband. She instead contacts other POW wives and they pressure the American government to disclose what’s known about their spouses. The wives’ coalition also demands a public admission that our men are being physically abused in Hanoi. These efforts make Sybil an international celebrity.

Also recommended:

THE HANOI HILTON (1987) reveals in detail the many barbarities inflicted on American detainees over an 8-year period. (VHS edition) (DVD edition)

Parenthetical number is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.7) In Love and War (TV-1987) – James Woods/Jane Alexander/Concetta Tomei/Richard McKenzie/James Pax/Haing S. Ngor/John Cedar/Sally Klein/Lillian Lehman/Lou Fant/Leo Geter/Steven Vincent Leigh/James Lashly

Rating:

In 1965, Navy Commander Jim Stockdale’s fighter plane is shot down. He’s captured by the North Vietnamese and sent to Hoa Lo prison (aka the “Hanoi Hilton”) where Stockdale (Woods) is subjected to almost daily torture. During nearly a decade of internment, he develops a clandestine communications system with other prisoners and organizes a resistance group against their inhumane captors.

Stockdale’s wife Sybil (Alexandra) has been urged by the military to keep quiet about her husband. She instead contacts other POW wives and they pressure the American government to disclose what’s known about their spouses. The wives’ coalition also demands a public admission that our men are being physically abused in Hanoi. These efforts make Sybil an international celebrity.

NOTE: This tape is recorded in SLP mode.

“In Love and War” is available on DVD.

Also recommended:

THE HANOI HILTON (1987) reveals in detail the many barbarities inflicted on American detainees over an 8-year period. (VHS edition) (DVD edition)

Parenthetical number is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.7) In Love and War (TV-1987) – James Woods/Jane Alexander/Concetta Tomei/Richard McKenzie/James Pax/Haing S. Ngor/John Cedar/Sally Klein/Lillian Lehman/Lou Fant/Leo Geter/Steven Vincent Leigh/James Lashly

Rating:

It’s a very interesting account of what is now a more or less unknown event in the history of the British Raj. To quote from the preface to the book “With the exception of the terrible retreat from Afghanistan, none of England’s many little wars have been so fatal–in proportion to the number of those engaged–as our first expedition to Burma. It was undertaken without any due comprehension of the difficulties to be encountered, from the effects of climate and the deficiency of transport; the power, and still more the obstinacy and arrogance of the court of Ava were altogether underrated; and it was considered that our possession of her ports would assuredly bring the enemy, who had wantonly forced the struggle upon us, to submission. Events, however, proved the completeness of the error. The Burman policy of carrying off every boat on the river, laying waste the whole country, and driving away the inhabitants and the herds, maintained our army as prisoners in Rangoon through the first wet season; and caused the loss of half the white officers and men first sent there. The subsequent campaign was no less fatal and, although large reinforcements had been sent, fifty percent of the whole died; so that less than two thousand fighting men remained in the ranks, when the expedition arrived within a short distance of Ava. Not until the last Burmese army had been scattered did the court of Ava submit to the by no means onerous terms we imposed.

Great, indeed, was the contrast presented by this first invasion of the country with the last war in 1885, which brought about the final annexation of Burma. Then a fleet of steamers conveyed the troops up the noble river; while in 1824 a solitary steamer was all that India could furnish, to aid the flotilla of rowboats. No worse government has ever existed than that of Burma when, with the boast that she intended to drive the British out of India, she began the war. No people were ever kept down by a more grinding tyranny, and the occupation of the country by the British has been an even greater blessing to the population than has that of India.

Several works, some by eyewitnesses, others compiled from official documents, appeared after the war. They differ remarkably in the relation of details, and still more in the spelling of the names both of persons and places. I have chiefly followed those given in the narratives of Mr. H. H. Wilson, and of Major Snodgrass, the military secretary to the commander of the expedition.”

The author, George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902), was a prolific English novelist and special correspondent. He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. He was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge and was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty’s later decision to accept an offer to become a Special Correspondent, the early name for writers now better known as War Correspondents.

Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their Special Correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War. He also witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India.

Henty once related in an interview how his storytelling skills grew out of tales told after dinner to his children. He wrote his first children’s book, Out on the Pampas in 1868, naming the book’s main characters after his children. While most of the 122 books he wrote were for children, he also wrote adult novels, non-fiction such as The March to Magdala and Those Other Animals, short stories for the likes of The Boy’s Own Paper and edited the Union Jack, a weekly boy’s magazine. His children’s novels typically revolved around a boy or young man living in troubled times. These ranged from the Punic War to more recent conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars or the American Civil War. Henty’s heroes – which occasionally included young ladies – are uniformly intelligent, courageous, honest and resourceful with plenty of ‘pluck’ yet are also modest. These virtues have made Henty’s novels popular today among many Christians and homeschoolers.

On 16 November 1902, Henty died aboard his yacht in Weymouth Harbour, Dorset shortly before he finished his last novel, By Conduct and Courage, which was completed by his son Captain C.G. Henty. Henty is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London