THE GOOD SOLDIER
Produced & Directed by Lexy Lovell & Michael Uys
Released by Artistic License Films
USA. 79 min. Not Rated
 

The Good Soldier, a documentary about the emotional impact war has on warriors, is dedicated to veterans but fails to convey the complex array of horrors to which they alone are privy. The film’s premise is pat, yet promising: five soldiers offer an unvarnished view of combat. That view is, predictably, negative.

Each of these men commands our respect for their service and for the frankness with which they describe it. The Vietnam vets tell of scores of innocents killed carelessly in the jungles, while a Marine explains how his platoon mowed down unarmed protesters in Baghdad. The most compelling parts of the film are discussions about the bizarre allure of killing. The Iraq war vet compares it to a heightened form of deer hunting, while Vietnam vet Will Williams says that he was so hooked on taking lives after his first tour of duty that he signed up for another—lest he turn his weapon on a fellow American.

The documentary is honest but not evocative. Filmmaking flourishes are limited to a splicing in of low-grade combat b-roll, which makes us feel only more disconnected from the fight. While the five stories have obvious similarities, the threads that exist between them are not tied together in any kind of meaningful way. Most of the soldiers have identical ideological positions, and while they’re all deeply affected by war, what they have to say about it fails to sustain our attention for an hour and 20 minutes.

The World War II vet is grievously wounded in the first days of battle, and his father is ashamed of him for falling so soon. The Gulf War vet comes out largely unscathed, but worries about his own son’s fate in the second Iraq war. The Marine who recently served in that conflict, Jimmy Massey, now takes anti-depressants and protests the war. The consensus that emerges is facile, and one we’ve heard before: war is hell from which there is no escape, even after the last bomb has fallen. By failing to reveal anything new with the accounts it collects, The Good Soldier keeps that hell and the soldiers who endured it at an emotional distance. Our veterans deserve better, as is the case all too often. Stephen Heyman
November 13, 2009