Outside views · Asia
10 Best Movies Set in or About Vietnam
Compare the enormous foreign cinema of the Vietnam War with rarer outside films about colonialism, diaspora, landscape, and present-day life.
Compare this list
Compare the route at a glance
Runtime, mood, and entry level help narrow the list without replacing the editorial ranking.
| Film | Runtime | Genre | Mood | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apocalypse Now | 147 min | Drama · War | tense · thoughtful · dreamlike | first visit |
| Full Metal Jacket | 117 min | Drama · War | tense · thoughtful · dark | first visit |
| Platoon | 120 min | Drama · War · Action | tense · thoughtful · dark | first visit |
| Good Morning, Vietnam | 121 min | Comedy · Drama · War | tense · funny · thoughtful | a lighter route |
| Indochine | 159 min | Drama · Romance | romantic · thoughtful · dark | character-driven drama |
| Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan | 119 min | War · Action · Drama | tense · thoughtful · dark | character-driven drama |
| Dust of Life | 87 min | Drama | thoughtful · dark | shorter watch |
| 14 Days, 12 Nights | 99 min | Drama | thoughtful · dark | shorter watch |
| Dien Bien Phu | 125 min | Drama · War | tense · thoughtful · dark | character-driven drama |
| Thi Mai | 99 min | Comedy | funny · dark | shorter watch · a lighter route |
10 Movies Set in or About Vietnam
Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Vietnam.
-
1. Apocalypse Now
At the height of the Vietnam War, a burnt-out army captain travels upriver on a secret mission to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god deep in the jungle. Francis Ford Coppola's hallucinatory, monumental war epic.
Why & details
Curator’s note: A Vietnam War epic whose premise, imagery, and political madness are built around the war in Vietnam.
- Runtime
- 147 min
- Genre
- Drama · War
- Mood
- tense · thoughtful · dreamlike
- Best for
- first visit
Content notes: war or political violence · substance use
-
2. Full Metal Jacket
A young Marine passes through the dehumanizing crucible of boot camp and into the brutal street fighting of the Vietnam War, where he confronts the madness the conflict makes of men. Stanley Kubrick's stark, unforgettable war film.
Why & details
Curator’s note: A Vietnam War film whose second half is centered on Hue and the Tet Offensive.
- Runtime
- 117 min
- Genre
- Drama · War
- Mood
- tense · thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- first visit
Content notes: war or political violence · suicide or self-harm
-
3. Platoon
A naive young volunteer thrust into the horror of ground combat in Vietnam is caught between two sergeants who embody the war's warring souls, and confronts the darkness in himself and his fellow soldiers. Oliver Stone's searing, Oscar-winning drama.
Why & details
Curator’s note: A Vietnam War combat drama centered on an American platoon's experience in Vietnam.
- Runtime
- 120 min
- Genre
- Drama · War · Action
- Mood
- tense · thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- first visit
Content notes: war or political violence · violence or threat · sexual content
-
4. Good Morning, Vietnam
A fast-talking, irreverent DJ arrives to host the Armed Forces Radio in 1965 Saigon, delighting the troops and infuriating his superiors even as the reality of the war closes in. A comedy-drama built around a whirlwind Robin Williams.
Why & details
Curator’s note: A Saigon-set Vietnam War story centered on American military radio and life during the war.
- Runtime
- 121 min
- Genre
- Comedy · Drama · War
- Mood
- tense · funny · thoughtful
- Best for
- a lighter route
Content notes: war or political violence · violence or threat
-
5. Indochine
In 1930s French colonial Indochina, a rubber-plantation owner, her adopted Vietnamese daughter, and a dashing naval officer form a fraught romantic triangle as the winds of revolution begin to blow. A lush, Oscar-winning historical epic.
Details
- Runtime
- 159 min
- Genre
- Drama · Romance
- Mood
- romantic · thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- character-driven drama
Content notes: war or political violence
-
6. Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan
In 1966, a small company of young, inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers is caught in a plantation by a vastly larger enemy force and must hold out through a desperate, rain-soaked battle. Based on a true story.
Details
- Runtime
- 119 min
- Genre
- War · Action · Drama
- Mood
- tense · thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- character-driven drama
Content notes: war or political violence
-
7. Dust of Life
Based on a true story, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, boys born to Vietnamese mothers and American soldiers are sent to harsh reeducation camps, where a few desperate youths plot their escape. A wrenching drama of war's forgotten children.
Details
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Genre
- Drama
- Mood
- thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- shorter watch
Content notes: war or political violence
-
8. 14 Days, 12 Nights
A woman travels to Vietnam, her adopted daughter's birthplace, and, guided by the local woman who gave the girl up, discovers the country and the story of her child's origins. A tender, reflective drama.
Details
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Genre
- Drama
- Mood
- thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- shorter watch
-
9. Dien Bien Phu
An American reporter finds himself caught in the climactic 1954 battle of Điện Biên Phủ, where French forces are besieged and overwhelmed by the Vietminh, marking the end of French colonial rule. A sweeping war epic.
Details
- Runtime
- 125 min
- Genre
- Drama · War
- Mood
- tense · thoughtful · dark
- Best for
- character-driven drama
Content notes: war or political violence
-
10. Thi Mai
After her daughter dies, a grieving Spanish woman discovers that the little Vietnamese girl her daughter had been adopting is now hers to claim, and sets off with two friends on a road trip across Vietnam to bring her home. A warm-hearted comedy-drama.
Details
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Genre
- Comedy
- Mood
- funny · dark
- Best for
- shorter watch · a lighter route
Content notes: war or political violence
Hear the country first
10 Best Vietnamese Movies to Watch First
Follow Vietnamese cinema through war, reconstruction, village and city life, family, migration, memory, and a growing contemporary independent voice.
- The Scent of Green Papaya 1993
- Cyclo 1995
- Furie 2019
Selected by the FilmsAroundThe.World editorial desk
Selections require an outside creative lead and a story or subject substantially centered on Vietnam. Decision labels are concise editorial aids, and content notes are non-exhaustive. Read the methodology.
Editorial review: 2026-07-13
Nearby on the atlas
More Asia guides: