Be Good, Smile Pretty

For years, filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos ignored her father's death in Vietnam, not questioning her mother about the man she never knew nor exploring the impact his absence had on her life. In Be Good, Smile Pretty--a raw, open wound of a film--Tragos reads her father's letters, looks at his old home movies, and retraces his steps from the Naval Academy to Vietnam, interviewing along the way family and friends left behind. Even though every single person who appears on-camera is on the edge of tears, the film never feels even slightly manipulative, effectively balancing the specific autobiographical nature of the quest within the context of the general tragic weight of the estimated 20,000 other Americans who also lost fathers in Vietnam. The relationship between Tragos and her whip-smart attorney mother has a complexity most fictional films never approach: underneath all of the love and sadness, Tragos greatly resents her mother for having hidden all traces of her dad; her mother, in turn, is both grateful and bitter about the cathartic goals of the film. While Tragos' visit to the Vietnam Memorial with her mother and grandmother is predictably moving, every story she hears (including memories from Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry) adds tragic dimension. DVD extras include extended interview footage, a photo gallery, and a resource guide. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (D. Fienberg)