Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

WINTER SOLDIER (1972)
Directed & Produced by: Winterfilm Collective in association with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Released by: Milliarium ZERO.
Country of Origin: USA. 95 min. Not Rated.
DVD Features: A Conversation with the filmmakers (18 min.) "Seasoned Veteran: The Journey of a Winter Soldier" (40 min.) Short films: "American Division" (23 min.) & "First Marine Division" (18 min.): portions & outtakes of the film. Song: "Oh! Camil" by Graham Nash. Trailer. Still gallery. Optional English captions. French & German subtitles. "The Winter Soldier Files" on DVD-ROM.

The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, met in Detroit, February 1971. Beginning with Rusty Sachs’ disclosure that he witnessed a prisoner of war thrown from a plane in midair, the testimonials of over two dozen officers of various ranks are unsparing and riveting. Given the range of speakers, some are more articulate than others. Underlying their statements is the role of command responsibility and the military’s process of dehumanizing the enemy to the point where unarmed and unresisting civilians became the enemy. Scott Camil’s recounting of his boot camp experience could have been scenes lifted out of Full Metal Jacket, which, incidentally, partially took place on Parris Island, where at least one of the veterans received his Marine basic training.

No matter one’s politics, this grainy black-and-white documentary can’t fail but be convincing – and harrowing. Many of the men admit to have participated in killing civilians, including children, and witnessing the rape and mutilation of women. One man, voice quavering, reveals a photo of himself holding up a dead Vietnamese as a trophy kill. John Kerry does make an appearance, but as one of the committee’s questioners; he himself did not see atrocities committed. He also appears in numerous photos of anti-war demonstrations in the disc’s photo gallery (where Jane Fonda makes her only appearance.)

It’s possible that eyebrows will be raised over one man’s comment that “Medals are a bunch of s---” or (in the “American Division” extra) another man’s embarrassment to be a Vietnam veteran. The image of an American flag hung upside down atop of the Statue of Liberty still has the power to provoke.

DVD Extras: Nowhere is Iraq directly mentioned. But with the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal still lingering in the news, it doesn’t need to be. Along with the repeated accounts of Geneva Convention violations, Sachs testifies he was never told how to treat prisoners. Coincidentally, opening this week in theaters is the documentary The War Tapes, comprised of footage shot by three national guardsman serving in Iraq, which capture the casual racism there. One officer admits there has been zero training regarding Iraqi culture; Hajji has been substituted for gook. However, nothing in The War Tapes comes close to Winter Soldier’s “horror of the commonplace.”

The special features are exhaustibly thorough. Included in the DVD-Rom is the 323-paged FBI file on the Winter Soldier hearings, 409 pages of transcripts from that February weekend, and John Kerry’s eloquently-written testimony before Congress in 1971. The most noteworthy extra is “A Seasoned Veteran: Journey of a Winter Soldier,” centering on Winter Soldier’s most prominently featured spokesman, Scott Camil. Although too brief at 40 minutes, the documentary covers his fascinating career as an anti-war activist in Florida, where he was shot in the back by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer in 1975. But in photos of Winter Soldier’s 2005 Lincoln Center screening, Iraq looms its head, with Camil wearing an "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam” T-shirt. (Four members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War were also present at the screening.) Kent Turner
May 30, 2006