Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, its echoes continue to shape how the conflict is remembered and retold—across cultures, generations, and continents. In the United States, the war is often framed through the lens of American involvement, sacrifice, and trauma. In Vietnam, its legacy is more layered, encompassing both the costs of prolonged struggle and the aspirations for national reunification and renewal. For those who left the country during and after the war, memory is equally shaped by displacement, resilience, and the longing for home.

To mark this milestone, filmmaker Tony Bui has curated Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides, a program on the Criterion Channel that brings together films from both Vietnam and the United States. Spanning several decades and genres—fiction and documentary, wartime and postwar, Vietnamese and American—these films offer a broader, more human view of the war and its aftermath. Many U.S. viewers may be familiar with landmark American titles like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, but few have had the opportunity to engage with Vietnamese films like The Little Girl of Hanoi or When the Tenth Month Comes, which illuminate lives shaped by war in distinct and powerful ways.

This curated collection is not simply an act of remembrance—it is a conversation across cultures and histories. In the interview titled Tony Bui on the Vietnam War’s Cinematic Legacy, Bui discusses the importance of expanding how we see and understand the Vietnam War on-screen, and the enduring relevance of the stories these films continue to tell.

In an in-depth conversation with Criterion, Bui shares the inspiration behind the series, reflects on his own film Three Seasons, and discusses why these stories still matter today.

You can read the full interview with Tony Bui on the official Criterion Collection website, also accessible through Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute website.