In Country: A Vietnam Story (Documentary)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Documentary: B-
There has
been an explicit effort not to deal with history since the 1980s and especially
in the last few years. One of the topics
mostly avoided to the point of shame has been Vietnam, but many of the
surviving soldiers have still not made the journey back (to Danang in
particular), which is why the documentary In
Country: A Vietnam Story (2006) is all the more interesting.
Three
Army buddies reunite and go back after over 30 years to see what happened to
the country they once fought in with blind faith. The twist is that the narrator and host Chris
Moore is a respected journalist from Pittsburgh, PA and the groundbreaking
public television station WQED. He
served over there and goes back to try to capture the changes and painful
memories that can and should never be altered in this hour-long reflection of
the past and present.
Made more
poignant by an ugly repeat of the Vietnam fiasco, which is never noted
throughout the production, the men are brutally honest and open about the past
and present. They talk about atrocities
and morals, how things there affected the rest of their lives and talk as if
the mistakes may not be made again.
Sadly they are, making this possibly the last program of its kind on the
matter before we enter a new era of disturbing self-reflection over the latest
fiasco and proof here then as now that there are always soldiers who tried to
do the right thing. Their results can only
be as good as and only reflect the morality of those above them.
I wonder
if we will see programs like this about Iraq in 35 years.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a collage of all kinds of video and
film, with various qualities and some film footage obviously from an older
video source, but it is watchable enough, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
has varied sound quality, but is professionally edited. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
