In 1962, irresponsible Lawrence Bourne (Hanks) just out of Yale is in debt for gambling and his father (Plimpton) refuses to pay the debt off for him. He manages to escape having his legs broken or worse by the people he owes money to by taking off to join the Peace Corp. Tom Tuttle (Candy) is a chubby naïve guy from Tacoma, Washington who Bourne is paired with for his stay in Loong Ta. Life there is difficult with few if any modern conveniences. The native people are friendly and helpful but unenthusiastic about the new bridge being built for them. A young native man (Watanabe) befriends the Americans and helps them understand the local customs. Beth Wexler (Wilson) is another youthful optimist out to change the world one small act at a time. She and Bourne fight like cats and dogs but eventually they begin to fall for one another as adversity and deprivation bring them closer.
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Things get a little scary when the volunteers get caught in a squeeze between local political forces and the CIA. Tuttle is the victim of mental coercion and torture by the Chinese. Other bad people are introduced as having a stake in the bridges completion. It is decided the best thing for the people the Peace Corp. wish to help is to take out the bridge before it can be put to misuse by the powers that are each vying for control of the region.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Fletcher
