''Four Hours in My Lai'' is a 1989

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

made by Yorkshire Television concerning the 1968 My Lai Massacre by the U.S. Army during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The film includes interviews with soldiers at the massacre, and the later trials of those involved. The programme first broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

as part of Yorkshire Television's '' First Tuesday'' documentaries. Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim, who created the film, based a book of the same name off the documentary. The book, which is still in print in the United States and the UK, has also been translated and published in Japan. It remains on the reading list around the world of many college and university courses on the Vietnam War.

Description

The documentary and book tell the story of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, from their training through deployment in

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

. It interviews former U.S. servicemen and massacre survivors; both describe the background of the area where the village of

My Lai My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

lay. (U.S soldiers referred to the entire area, made up of several hamlets and sub-hamlets, as "Pinkville," due to the reddish-pink color used on military maps to denote more heavily populated areas.) The documentary also shows photographs of U.S. servicemen torturing civilians before the massacre and tells of U.S. servicemen raping South Vietnamese women and children prior to the massacre. After the massacre, the trials of the soldiers at My Lai are examined. The documentary is narrated by Mark Halliley. It also aired on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series ''

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

'' as "Remember My Lai".

Reception

In 1989, the film won an International Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Upon release, Bilton and Sim's book ''Four Hours in My Lai'' was met with mixed reception. In a review for ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'',

Marc Leepson Marc Leepson (born June 20, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American journalist, historian, and author. Education Leepson was educated at Hillside High School in Hillside, New Jersey (Class of 1963) and George Washington University where he ...

criticised the book for avoiding "the common tactics of the Viet Cong", and describing their activities "in euphemistically positive terms." Leepson went on to say the book "paints a distorted picture of the Vietnam war". Writing for '' The Boston Globe'', Gail Caldwell said the book was written with a "

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

, cinematographic style", and praised it for providing "broad context, from the horrific losses Charlie Company had endured ..to the cover-up and subsequent acquittal of several chief Army officers".

Murray Polner Murray Polner (March 15, 1928 – May 30, 2019) was an American editor and author. He was the founding editor of ''Present Tense'', a job he held for the entire two decades that the magazine was published. He was an anti-Vietnam War activist and a ...

of '' Washington Monthly'' credited the two for "

aying Aying is a municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is known for the Ayinger Brewery Ayinger Brewery ( ; german: Brauerei Aying) is in Aying, Bavaria, Germany, about 25 km south of Munich. Ayinger beers are exported ...

ut the complete story, from the raid to the coverup, in straightforward and often agonizing detail."

References

{{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Four Hours in My Lai'' , list = {{BAFTA Award for Best Documentary {{InternationalEmmyAward Documentary Mỹ Lai massacre Television series by Yorkshire Television 1989 in British television Documentary films about the Vietnam War British television documentaries Television series by ITV Studios 1989 films 1980s British films