 |
SwiftVets.com
Service to Country
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Anker-Klanker
Admiral
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1033
Location: Richardson, TX
|
 Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 4:24 pm Post subject: Warning: New Vietnam Propoganda Film |
 |
|
Comment: As Me#1 points out, there was an earlier heads-up on this film in a comment buried in a 18 April thread. The comment included a link to a Village Voice review (it's interesting to compare the two reviews: the one in the Village Voice, and the one below). At the time no one else commented on this "event," so I'll not retract this posting since I think it deserves greater attention.
The following review appeared on page 7G of today's (26 May) A&E section of the Dallas Morning News. I have not been successful in finding a link to the story, so I will have to cold type it in verbatim. [embedded comments] and highlighting are mine.
| Quote: | Frag Waving
Review: Film takes a lopsided look at GI opposition to war
By Glenn Whiff
Los Angeles Daily News
With Sir! No Sir!, filmmaker David Zeiger attacks what he believes to be the myth of the spat-upon Vietnam veteran (pacifists and women do not spit [maybe not, but activists sure do! - AK]) as well as the idea that the era's peaceniks and soldiers shared no common ground. Mr. Zeiger, in fact, aims to reshape the way the Vietnam peace movement has come to be seen as well as stake some claims to current relevancy with regard to the wars America is now fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sounds like a tall order, huh? Mr. Zeigler only partially succeeds in fulfilling his ambitions.
The strengths of Sir! No Sir! can be found in Mr. Zeigler's interviews with Vietnam vets and the amazing archival footage of soldiers rebelling, both out of conscience and exediency. [Note: no mention that many of these people were imposters - AK].
But Mr. Zeiger overstates the extent of the GI peace movement, and his singular focus in hailing the protestors creates blind spots in his movie. He spends several minutes of his film's brief running time lamenting the case of Billy Dean Smith, and African-American GI unjustly arrested and charged with murdering a superior officer with a fragmentary grenade.
The practice was called fragging, and Mr. Zeigler asserts that by 1970, hundreds of officers in Vietnam had been killed in this fashion. Mr. Smith was a scapegoat, yes, but nowhere in the movie does Mr. Zeiger question the morality of murder, much less shed a tear for the families of servicemen killed by fragging.
Likewise, Jane Fonda appears in Sir! No Sir!, both in footage of a 1970 performance in an anti-war cabaret and in a self-satisfied present-day interview. (Ms. Fonda's son, Troy Garity, narrates the movie.) Ms. Fonda's support for North Vietnam's Communist regime is never mentioned.
John Kerry's name doesn't come up, either, though his group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is mentioned. Mr. Zeiger says that Mr. Kerry's story had already been covered in the 2004 documentary Going Upriver. Besides, Mr. Zeiger says, "people who supported Kerry because of his anti-war stance during Vietnam saw how startlingly far he's gone in his ultimate betrayal of the stand he took in the 1960's." [I guess that tells us a lot about how far-left Mr. Zeiger is - AK]
True enough [Huh? What does this tell us about the reviewer? - AK]. But while dissent is as American as baseball and apple pie, agitprop like Sir! No Sir! serves mostly as a reminder of how history continues to be rewritten, in this case both for good and bad.
In a nutshell: Documentary refreshes our memories about the strength of GI resistance to the Vietnam War while soft-pedaling its unsavory aspects. |
Comment: even though the author/reviewer reveals that he, himself, is something of a liberal anti-war person by his comments, it is interesting that even he felt compelled to point out the obvious slant of this movie. It must be awful, indeed.
The link to the earlier Village Voice review is:
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0616,gallo,72911,20.html
Following the above review was this note:
| Quote: | | Dallas resident Dave Rabbit, who is featured in the documentary Sir! No Sir! will conduct question-and-answer sessions following the film tonight at 8:15, Saturday at 6:15 p.m. and Sunday at 2:15. [Shown at the Dallas Angelika] |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
|
| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | With Sir! No Sir!, filmmaker David Zeiger attacks what he believes to be the myth of the spat-upon Vietnam veteran |
I did a lot of reading at their website. They have one page disclaiming that "myth", but, digging deep into their archives are some accounts from that era, by their anti-war vets, recounting being spat upon. ( they have archives of the underground GI press of the time)
quite ironic
_________________
.
one of..... We The People |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
