As told in the book by stockdale and his wife, it's the story of how commander james stockdale was taken prisoner of war for eight years in vietnam. James woods is stockdale, a fighter pilor leading strikes against north vietnam. According to his wikipedia page, he suffered injuries and torture during his imprisonment, some self inflicted so he could not be used as propaganda in public. We can see that he's being tortured, but it's tastefully done out of view of the camera. His wife sybil grew so frustrated with the lack of information being provided to the spouses, she joined the support group to try to help the p.o.w's. They at least wanted to get the u.s. Government to acknowledge the poor treatment and/or lack of updates of the prisoners. It's mostly well done.... there's some good acting, and some not so good acting. Stockdale was awarded numerous medals, and would later be primed as perot's running mate for the 1992 presidential election. Directed by paul aaron. Haing ngor, who plays major bui, was murdered ten years after this, in los angeles.