PalCinema Review: Jimmy in Saigon

April 20, 2025

FILM: JIMMY IN SAIGON

DIRECTED BY: PETER MCDOWELL

RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars

By Dan Pal

Here’s a fascinating documentary that first played film festivals in 2022. It is now getting a theatrical release, and thankfully so! Peter McDowell knew something of his brother Jimmy who passed away in Vietnam when Peter was only five years old. The circumstances surrounding his death were mysterious and his family always said the pain was “too raw” to talk about. Beginning in 2010, Peter began his journey to uncover details about what happened to Jimmy. He spent the next decade interviewing family, friends, and people who knew him in Vietnam. The goal: to find out how Jimmy died and to discover how much the brothers might have had in common.

Peter provides some effective visual aids to tell not only Jimmy’s story but the various events surrounding the Vietnam War. There is plenty of footage from the war itself, news reports, protests, and army training films. Of course, most people who might be interested in this film likely know something about the war and the public’s strong distaste for it. However, that is not what Peter McDowell is most concerned with. Reading letters that Jimmy wrote to the family and listening to what others said about his brother, he begins to get a more detailed sense of what may have happened to him. There are discussions about Jimmy’s “hedonistic pleasures” such as drugs and sex which seemed to have become such a big part of his life while in Saigon that he vowed to remain there. He had no interest in U.S. middle class values.

The portrait painted of Jimmy is atypical of one that is often told about veterans. Perhaps most interesting are the stories about his possible relationship with a younger Vietnamese man. Was he gay? Jimmy was said to be very protective of his privacy. Peter makes it clear early in the film that he is gay himself and wants to understand this part of Jimmy’s life.

The director goes through painstaking field research traveling to Vietnam to see where Jimmy lived and also meeting up with key individuals from his past in Oregon and Iowa. It’s a moving journey and one which offers plenty of eye-opening moments for Peter and viewers alike.

The work he does suggests his strong dedication to the project as well as to the brother he never really knew. The film is filled with photos and home movies as well as reflections from the family, including its elderly matriarch. They’re very open about their feelings and Peter lets them be heard.

It’s also fascinating to hear the perspective of the Vietnamese that knew something about Jimmy and the places he lived. While the cultural differences are fairly wide, there’s still a human side to this story that connects both worlds and ultimately offers viewers an intimate and very emotional universal experience.

It’s sad that this film has taken so long to be seen by wider audiences since it has a perspective that we don’t often see but that remains highly relevant today.

Jimmy in Saigon opens in limited release this week in New York. In the coming weeks, it will expand before becoming available on VOD on May 13^th.

What do you think? Are you a fan of documentaries like this?

For the archive of PalCinema reviews, click here.