Passage to Vietnam

With its 400 photos, hour of video, lilting indigenous music, and insightful essays, Passage to Vietnam is a landmark disc that transports you to contemporary Vietnam, where pigs squawk, mothers tote babies on their backs, and peddlers hawk dried sea horses. This Passage, produced with Scorsese-like lushness by Rick Smolan, is no swanky animated program, but it is virtual reality of a high and literary nature because it makes you dream. Without wasting words, the photographers eloquently tell the stories behind their pictures — stories of people at work and play. Though we can't help but remember the horror of war, Passage helps us to see that time has begun its healing. A+