It may sound melodramatic for me to say that every American should watch this, but it's not melodrama...it's truth. This is an amazing documentary about the men and women in our U.S. Armed Forces that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mostly from the viewpoint of the Iraqi war veterans, this movie is "in their words"...literally.
The National Endowment for the Arts went to the Middle East to teach our combat warriors how to write about their experiences while in the midst of devastating war...the result is breathtaking! Combining poetry, fiction, narrative and letters to home, the real life tales of war left me sobbing repeatedly. Army Sargeant John McCary's To the Fallen includes a photo montage of soldiers that have fallen while in this conflict. This visual reminder of the cost so many have paid, combined with McCary's beautiful poetry brings me to tears even now as I write.
More highlights include a narrative by a member of the Air Force Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and perhaps the most sobering, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl who volunteered as a military escort for the body of deceased 19 year old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. His story, entitled "Taking Chance" describes the honor and dignity that this man showed his fallen comrade whom he'd never met before attending him home. I shudder to think of the disrespect that so many fallen heroes have been shown.
The words written by military personnel are read for the movie by actors. There are also interviews with the authors of these stories and veteran authors of other U.S. wars that are interspersed throughout the movie. The comment that has stuck with me for the last week since I first watched this film is by Tobias Wolff, author and Vietnam War veteran. It gave me such pause to think, that I watched it frame by frame so I could copy it verbatim:
"The sign of a really decadent civilization is one that sends young people out to do and to suffer the things that soldiers do...and suffer in wars and not care about what those things are...and not to have any cost laid on them even of knowing what is going on. To avoid even the cost...we seem to have avoided every other...but even to have avoided that cost, that's a decadence...an unforgivable decadence."
This film is no longer on Netflix, but you can still watch it on topdocumentaryfilms.com. On this Veteran's Day, watch it and know what these men and women have done in service to their country.
Disclaimer: If you are sensitive to strong language, there is one segment that has numerous F-bombs throughout.
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