In 1988’s To Heal A Nation, Eric Roberts stars as Jan Scruggs.

When we first meet Scruggs, the year is 1971 and he’s taking his seat on a commercial airliner.  When the blonde woman sitting beside him starts to flirt with him, Scruggs mentions that he’s happy because he’s finished up his tour of duty in Vietnam.  Upon hearing that Scruggs is a Vietnam vet, the woman immediately requests to be moved to a different seat.

Eight years later, things haven’t gotten much better.  Scruggs works for the Department of Labor in Washington D.C.  He’s married to Becky (Glynnis O’Connor) but he’s struggling to deal with the past.  He drinks too much.  He has trouble sleeping.  He doesn’t feel like he can open up about the things that he saw in Vietnam because nobody wants to talk about it.  He was one of the thousands of people who served in Vietnam who now feel as if they’ve been abandoned by their country.  However, after attending a showing of The Deer Hunter, Scruggs has a vision of  a monument that that features the name of every American who was killed in the Vietnam Conflict.

Scruggs devotes the next several years of his life to getting the monument built, appealing to both the government and private citizens for funding.  At first, everyone treats Scruggs and his efforts like a joke.  Even some fellow veterans feel that Scruggs is pushing too hard and that he’s just going to end up embarrassing himself.  But Scruggs refuses to give up and finally, with the support of a senator (Laurence Luckinbill) and a Texas millionaire named H. Ross Perot (Conrad Bachmann), Scruggs is able to make his dream a reality.

Based on the true story of the struggle to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., To Heal A Nation features a young Eric Roberts giving a nervy but likable performance as Jan Scruggs, a man who becomes so obsessed with building a monument to those who lost their lives in Vietnam that he occasionally seems like he’s close to going over the edge himself.  It’s a good film for Memorial Day and one that still feels relevant today.  The way that Scruggs was treated after returning from Vietnam is the way a lot of our veterans were treated and continue to be treated after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  We love our soldiers when they fight in popular wars that result in a definite victory.  When they serve in an unpopular war, they’re often deserted by people who don’t want to be reminded of recent history.  One can certainly see that in the attempts by the national media to gloss over what happened during our final days in Afghanistan.  This film is a reminder that no one should be forgotten.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

1. Star 80 (1983)
2. Runaway Train (1985)
3. Best of the Best (1989)
4. Blood Red (1989)
5. The Ambulance (1990)
6. The Lost Capone (1990)
7. Best of the Best II (1993)
8. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
9. Voyage (1993)
10. Love Is A Gun (1994)
11. Sensation (1994)
12. Dark Angel (1996)
13. Doctor Who (1996)
14. Most Wanted (1997)
15. Mercy Streets (2000)
16. Raptor (2001)
17. Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001)
18. Strange Frequency (2001)
19. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
20. Border Blues (2004)
21. Mr. Brightside (2004)
22. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
23. We Belong Together (2005)
24. Hey You (2006)
25. Depth Charge (2008)
26. Amazing Racer (2009)
27. The Chaos Experiment (2009)
28. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
29. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
30. Enemies Among Us (2010)
31. The Expendables (2010) 
32. Sharktopus (2010)
33. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
34. The Dead Want Women (2012)
35. Deadline (2012)
36. The Mark (2012)
37. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
38. Assault on Wall Street (2013)
39. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
40. Lovelace (2013)
41. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
42. The Perfect Summer (2013)
43. Self-Storage (2013)
44. Sink Hole (2013)
45. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
46. This Is Our Time (2013)
47. Bigfoot vs DB Cooper (2014)
48. Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)
49. Inherent Vice (2014)
50. Road to the Open (2014)
51. Rumors of War (2014)
52. Amityville Death House (2015)
53. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
54. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
55. Las Vegas Story (2015)
56. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
57. Enemy Within (2016)
58. Hunting Season (2016)
59. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
60. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
61. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
62. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
63. Dark Image (2017)
64. The Demonic Dead (2017)
65. Black Wake (2018)
66. Frank and Ava (2018)
67. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
68. Clinton Island (2019)
69. Monster Island (2019)
70. The Reliant (2019)
71. The Savant (2019)
72. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
73. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
74. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
75. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
76. Free Lunch Express (2020)
77. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
78. Top Gunner (2020)
79. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
80. The Elevator (2021)
81. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
82. Killer Advice (2021)
83. Megaboa (2021)
84. Night Night (2021)
85. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
86. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
87. Red Prophecies (2021)
88. A Town Called Parable (2021)
89. Bleach (2022)
90. Dawn (2022)
91. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
92. 69 Parts (2022)
93. The Rideshare Killer (2022)
94. D.C. Down (2023)
95. Aftermath (2024)
96. Bad Substitute (2024)
97. Devil’s Knight (2024)
98. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
99. When It Rains In L.A. (2025