Jimmy in Saigon Image

Jimmy in Saigon

By Kent Hill | May 14, 2025

As compelling a portrait of a family as Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmans, Peter McDowell’s Jimmy in Saigon is the story within the story of a brother trying to know the brother he never knew. Buried beneath his own family’s shame and secrecy, the unearthing of the truth behind the adventures of the wayward Jimmy McDowell.

Peter was only five years old when news reached his mother and father of their eldest son’s death in Saigon. Jimmy, a character who stood apart from most of his friends and family members, had returned to Vietnam shortly after completing his tour there as a member of the armed forces during the war. Having fallen in love with the exotic locale and feeling disenfranchised by the values of his native USA, Jimmy packed up the little he had and went back to his home, away from home.

But his journey was not of great length, as Jimmy was only in his early twenties when he was reported to have passed because of an infection possibly related to drug abuse. Learning this sent his family into a free-fall. A shroud of silence curtailed the misplaced and all-encompassing grief until Jimmy’s youngest brother went digging.

What Peter McDowell uncovers, from a variety of interviews with people who grew up with Jimmy to the collected letters, photographs, and recollections of his parents and siblings, is interesting. But they are only part of the story.

“…the tale his brother unravels is that of a vital spark who lived what life he had to the fullest…”

As Jimmy in Saigon unfolds, part fact collecting, part mystery, it is not something dark and unfathomable. The mythical older brother’s tale takes on great complexity, especially when Peter makes his pilgrimage to Vietnam after he finds his mother had a letter from a woman Jimmy was involved with, having written to the family in the wake of Jimmy’s passing.

This single artifact changes the direction of the story completely and broadens the quest for something that becomes intimate between the filmmaker and the ghosts he chases in this picture. There are genuine moments of tension as information is presented, revealed, and confirmed. The years roll by as Peter scours the internet for even the faintest clues that will lead to the truth about Jimmy, or as close as he can land next to it.

This makes Jimmy in Saigon such an engrossing study. Not just of a family, but of how, as close as you think you are to someone, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Also, there is the illustration of how people deal with pain and shame. How out-of-sight-out-of-mind thinking can lead to bonds being shattered by mistrust. What Peter McDowell ultimately exposes with his film is the reality that who a person really is, compared to how everyone else perceives them, is the complete opposite. Jimmy McDowell was intensely private during his short time on Earth, but the tale his brother unravels is that of a vital spark who lived what life he had to the fullest, and on his own terms.

Jimmy in Saigon (2025)

Directed and Written: Peter McDowell

Starring: Peter McDowell, Ellen McDowell, Alan McDowell, Andy McDowell, John Attebury, Yves Bletzacker, Robert Carolan, VuThi Ngoc Diep, etc.

Movie score: 8/10

Jimmy in Saigon Image

"…out-of-sight-out-of-mind thinking can lead to bonds being shattered by mistrust..."

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