Body of War (2007)

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Body of War (2007); What are we fighting for?
Topic Started: Nov 9 2008, 12:50 PM (52 Views)
igsjr	Nov 9 2008, 12:50 PM Post #1
Nostalgia blogger Posts: 1,228 Group: Members Member #40 Joined: September 7, 2005	Body of War (2007) is a documentary written, produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro which is scheduled to make its television debut Tuesday night on The Sundance Channel (according to Donahue, who plugged it on The Rachel Maddow Show Friday night). If your cable service offers Sundance on Demand, however, you can watch it right now...or earlier this morning, which is when I availed myself of the opportunity. Twenty-six-year-old Tomas Young is an Iraqi War veteran who wasn't in the country for five days when a bullet wreaked havoc on his spine, paralyzing him from the nipples down. He can't walk, he can't cough--he can't even sweat, due to the malfunction of his respiratory system. This hour-and-a-half documentary details the difficulties in his life and his conversion to anti-war activism while at the same time serving as a not-so-subtle reminder of the 77 members of that august body known as the U.S. Senate who voted to give Commander Codpiece the authority to start this boneheaded war in the first place. Body of War is not subtle in its agenda, but it still makes for a riveting must-see. My own personal credo has always been that this country should not start wars until they've taken care of all the veterans who came home bruised and broken from the last one...and in Young, they most assuredly screwed him. I was moved by several sequences in this film, particularly a scene where Young visits Senator Robert C. Byrd in his office and the two men are exiting down one of the halls--one incapacitated by a wheelchair, the other by age. (I couldn't keep from puddling up during that.) The other is a brief bit where Young, besieged by pro-war protestors at an anti-war demonstration calling him "traitor" addresses these pinheads by shouting: "If I wasn't in this wheelchair, I'd kick your ass!" Four out of four tickets. If you get Sundance on Demand, you should really check it out.
	"Life is in color--but black-and-white is more realistic..." -- Samuel Fuller, director So many DVDs...so little time...


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