If this fall you should find yourself blindfolded, strolling into your neighborhood theater, there is about a one in four chance you’ll walk into a film that is, at least peripherally, about the war in Iraq or the war on terror. But few of these films will deal with the conflict in the same fashion than HBO’s documentary Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq.

The film isn’t necessarily a profile of the war or an attempt to get into its specific, polarizing politics. In this fashion, the compact film is largely refreshing, offering a portrait of the personal repercussions and cost of the war on 10 veterans who have been seriously injured in battle.

They all describe their “alive day,” the day they survived. Some are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, some have severe brain damage, and others are amputees from roadside bombings. The conversational interviews provide a forum for the veterans to tell their story and what their lives have been like upon returning to America – a simple, straightforward documentary with a clear goal.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the film accomplishes its stated objective as an unbiased collection of stories. Touches of overwrought patriotism accompany the interviews: slow-motion shots of the American flag blowing in the wind, vets singing the national anthem. Other mildly distracting attempts at eliciting an emotional reaction merely distract from what are otherwise moving, engaging interviews that can only make the audience wonder whether war is worth what it has cost these men and women. However, the filmmakers are largely successful in their approach, never overtly touching on the war’s politics or the decisions that have led these young soldiers to become purple heart-wearing veterans in their early twenties.

Yet it leaves you longing to hear what these men and women think of the American intervention in Iraq. Interviewer James Gandolfini leaves the subject untouched, staying more focused on their alive days, allowing them to talk about whatever seems to come to them. The relentless series of varying angles on talking heads is visual underwhelming, but tastefully placed footage from embedded cameras in Army vehicles and video shot by insurgents add a jolt to the film.

Despite the scattered flaws, Alive Day Memories is quite powerful, intriguing, and galvanizing. One could question the decision to attempt the impossible feat of creating a truly unbiased documentary in a time of war, especially when the conflict has become to be defined in such uncertain terms, while simultaneously becoming increasingly controversial. But maybe it is best to accept a different approach and see a different – and human – side of a much larger story. Dustin Nelson
October 23, 2007