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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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 Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:29 am Post subject: Wash Times: Fading 'Soldier' still fighting Vietnam War |
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Rather fitting that this "epic" should slither into D.C. at this apropos moment in time...one can almost hear the groans emanating from Demo strategists' offices.
| Quote: | Fading 'Soldier' still fighting Vietnam War
December 9, 2005
Every movie is destined to become a period piece, but some specimens age more gracefully than others. Time has not been kind to "Winter Soldier," exclusively at the Landmark E Street Cinema.
Though it was never designed to look attractive in a conventional sense, the mystique of urgency and authenticity reflected in talking-heads footage from 1971, shot on grainy 16 mm black-and-white stock, looks nothing but perishable at this late date.
<snip>
The young John Kerry was an observer rather than a formal witness in Detroit. He appears for a few moments that now tend to resemble an afterthought or celebrity insert. His turn in the spotlight came at a subsequent forum, hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held in April 1971. By the time the movie was released a year later, Mr. Kerry had emerged as the VVAW's most pensive and photogenic figurehead.
<snip>
The failure of the war in Iraq to become the sort of "slam-dunk" that might have spared President Bush from a legacy of hostility on the American left must have prompted the dubious notion that "Winter Soldier" cried out to be liberated from mothballs. Seymour Hersh and the New Yorker exploited the Abu Ghraib scandal in a way that echoes the line of argument in this film: Anything shameful done by American soldiers must be traceable to sinister policy decisions by the leadership of the military and the government.
The Winter Soldier confab itself piggybacked on the Army's court martial of Sgt. William Calley for the My Lai massacre. As before, the ability of the military to discipline or punish its own personnel is conveniently disregarded in the interest of discrediting war policy in general while feasting on atrocity claims.
The term "Winter Soldier" was a double-take coinage from the outset. It derived from a famous Thomas Paine polemic written during the discouraging winter of 1776. The familiar words: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the services of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of men and women."
This would appear to be an eloquent argument for perseverance when a war's outcome is in doubt. The reverse connotations adopted by anti-war proponents in 1971 sound even more dubious in 2005.
*1/2
TITLE:"Winter Soldier"
RATING: No MPAA rating (Adult subject matter, preoccupied with accusations of war atrocities; frequent profanity and graphic descriptions of brutality and carnage; fleeting newsreel footage of the Vietnam War).
CREDITS: Produced by the Winterfilm Collective. Directed by Michael Lesser. Photographed and edited by Mr. Lesser and several colleagues, the most notable of whom was Barbara Kopple.
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes
WEB SITE: www.wintersoldierfilm.com
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
Washington Times |
See also Wizbang's "review" of the Washington Post puff piece (er.."review"). |
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George F. Thompson
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 11 May 2004
Posts: 80
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Fl 32547
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| Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject: Fading soldier's |
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I wonder who proof reads these articles for accuracy. Last time I checked, Calley was a Lt. now he's been reduced in rank to sergeant. But then again it was from the Wapo.
George F. Thompson |
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Doll
Commander
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: The Beltway
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| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The failure of the war in Iraq to become the sort of "slam-dunk" that might have spared President Bush from a legacy of hostility on the American left must have prompted the dubious notion that "Winter Soldier" cried out to be liberated from mothballs. Seymour Hersh and the New Yorker exploited the Abu Ghraib scandal in a way that echoes the line of argument in this film: Anything shameful done by American soldiers must be traceable to sinister policy decisions by the leadership of the military and the government. |
Where do they come up with this crap! That whole paragraph infuriates me to no end!
Sinister policy decisions? The only sinister policy I see in this country is the lefts never ending agenda to criticize Bush and undermine our troops. That is what is sinister. 
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Last edited by Doll on Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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