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This Weekend’s Film Festival Memorializes The War Experience

21 05 2008

With Memorial Day Weekend coming up, this week’s lineup deals with the war experience on film, especially focusing on returning soldiers dealing with their lives after combat. Wars addressed include WWII, Vietnam and the current Iraq war. One documentary shows the recollections of a war planner. Others deal with family members’ reactions to their returning husbands, sons and friends. While the films this week deal with different wars from different eras, many of the problems veterans face when rejoining civilian life are universal. On this holiday set aside to remember those that didn’t return, it’s also good to note the innocence that parishes in those that survive.

Additionally, this This Weekend’s Film Festival marks the year anniversary of this column. Outside of a few weeks, I’ve been able to keep this a weekly event. While I never expected readers to watch all five weekly picks every week, I hope that this column provides insight and perspective into films you may have seen before or ones you have yet to discover. The more I do the column the more I learn about film, so I hope you’re finding use in it as well. Here’s to another year, and let’s get this week’s lineup rolling.

The opening night film is one from last year that I caught on DVD in March. Paul Haggis’ IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH does for the Iraq war what COMING HOME and THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES did for Vietnam and WWII, respectively. It gives a fresh perspective on how the horrors of war weigh on a returning soldiers’ mind. Retired MP Hank Deerfield, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by Tommy Lee Jones, has a son who upon returning from Iraq has gone missing. The laconic and dogged man leaves home to search for his boy, who turns up dead. Thrown from the police to the military back to the police, the investigation seems to be going nowhere, so Hank tirelessly stays on investigators, especially Emily (Charlize Theron), who gets no respect from her fellow detectives. Like A SOLDIER’S STORY, ELAH uses a murder mystery as an avenue to larger issues. What Hank learns will shake the former officer’s own faith. As I said in my original review, “This film isn’t about Iraq; it’s about all wars and the mental toll they play on brave men, who are asked by their country to do terrible things.”

One of the most celebrated war movies of the past two decades, Oliver Stone’s PLATOON begins the Saturday lineup’s look at Vietnam on the ground and in retrospect. I remember when this film came out in 1986 and its impact on the culture was so great that rumors about the film giving veteran’s flashbacks after watching it trickled down to by 5th grade world. As a curious young lad, I, of course, wanted to see it right away, however, I didn’t get around to witnessing it until college, where my over intellectualized brain didn’t see the meaning or themes as strongly as other war parables I had seen. But now having seen it several times since, I believe that my impression of the film has hinged on what I said in the closing of my 2003 review, “I guess I’m kind of like [the protagonist] in a way — I’m trying to find meaning in war and death when there isn’t any. [He] survives, but his innocence is dead forever.” The protagonist is Chris, played in a career best performance by Charlie Sheen. He’s a young man who comes from a well-off family who enlists in the marines to see what real life is like. However, his worldview is rocked when he discovers hell instead. Representing his inner struggle are the opposing views on the war from Sgt. Barnes and Sgt. Elias, who he both looks up to. Barnes, played devilishly by Tom Berenger, believes that conventional morality doesn’t apply to savage combat, while Elias, played by Willem Dafoe, believes that to retain the upper hand soldiers have to strive to remain humane. Lacking the conventional plot structure, one episode occurs after another with no purpose or meaning. Now that I’m older, I understand why this film could have unsettled former soldiers; it reminds them of the day-to-day drudgery of battle and the senselessness. The human brain likes to put things order, and war films up to this film tried to organize war as well, when in reality chaos is closer to the truth.

Modern wars have those who fight and those to plan. Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was the chief strategist of the Vietnam war and his recollections of the era make up Errol Morris’ historically fascinating Oscar-winning documentary THE FOG OF WAR. Subtitled “Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara,” Morris talks with the spry octogenarian, who frankly tells his regrets about a war he knows he lost and could have ended. In lieu of further description, read the 11 lessons — “empathize with your enemy,” “rationality will not save us,” “there’s something beyond one’s self,” “maximize efficiency,” “proportionality should be a guideline in war,” “get the data,” “belief and seeing are both often wrong,” “be prepared to reexamine your reasoning,” “in order to do good, you may have to engage in evil,” “never say never,” and “you can’t change human nature.” This candid look at war from a planner is important. Morris gives us a unique perspective on combat through the interview with McNamara and archival footage, which helps paint the portrait of the man as he was seen during the war. As I said in my original review, “[The film] also proves the old adage — those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”

Sunday’s doubleheader tells the story of returning soldiers from two different wars. The opener is COMING HOME. As I described it my original review, “Mixing the difficulties unique to Vietnam vets with the adjustment problems of all returning soldiers, Hal Ashby’s touching drama contrasts the pro-war and the anti-war sentiments by presenting two soldiers connected by their love for the same woman.” Military wife Sally, played in an Oscar-winning performance from Jane Fonda, finds herself torn between the love for her warrior husband Bob (Oscar-nominated Bruce Dern) and hippie paraplegic Luke, in a career best Oscar-winning performance from Jon Voight. A discussion between vets in the VA hospital sets the mood and themes of the film right from the start. All returning soldiers struggle with what they did during the war and how they must reconcile those actions with civilian life. Luke views the war as a waste of lives, leaving survivors ill equipped to deal with life. Bob also views the war as a waste, but as a waste of military glory. How is any soldier to feel when the war they are fighting seems to be run by men not interested in doing what it takes to actually win? Sally transforms from an unquestioning soldier’s bride to an independent woman who tries to help the forgotten vets regain their dignity. This tender story of healing only gets better as it moves along.

The closing film, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, is the best film about returning soldiers. Freed from any political differences, the honest WWII drama forges a universal story of soldier’s reintegration into society. Following three different soldiers, William Wyler’s Oscar-winning film shows how war can often level the playing field for men who come from completely different backgrounds, but returning home only brings the differences back in disheartening ways. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) was a soda jerk who became a captain in the war and has a hard time dealing with diminished respect from the girl he married only weeks before going to battle and from society in general. The complete opposite, Al Stephenson, in an Oscar-winning performance from Fredric March, was a low-ranking soldier, who returns to a rich life as a banker, feeling guilty for his good life that other vets don’t have. The third is Homer Parrish, played by double Oscar-winner Harold Russell, a sailor who lost both his hands and now uses hooks. His disability makes dealing with loved ones, who don’t know how to react, difficult. The three men grow close due to their common experiences. Al’s daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) especially grows close to charming Fred, who is stuck in a loveless marriage. Milly (Myrna Loy), Al’s wife, begins to worry about her husband’s need for alcohol. Filled with well-observed characters and touching frankness, this film has become a timeless classic. As I said in my original review, “with honest portrayals of the difficulties of acclimating oneself to life after war, the whole film brings hope and courage to veterans’ stories, as well as the human condition.”

So that’s the Memorial Day Weekend lineup. Hope you enjoy it. For the second year of This Weekend’s Film Festival I’m putting out a call for themes. In open weeks when there isn’t new DVD releases to bring attention to, I’ll use reader suggested themes. Make them personal, make the difficult, make them weird. Hit me with your best shot. Let’s start some provocative discussion (between the four folks who regularly read this column). So post your ideas in the comments or shoot me an email. But now it’s time to head to the rental store, update the Netflix queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings or help support the site by buying the films on DVD at the links below.