Winter Soldier
Director: Winter Collective
Year Released: 1972
Rating: 3.0
Simple but wrenching film of the Detroit Winter Soldier hearings which involved Vietnam Vets presenting testimony about atrocities committed by them and others during that horrible conflict. It almost feels like a confessional: here men present their sins - or inability to prevent others from sinning - and all anyone can do is sit there, numb and hope they forgive themselves. Curiously, someone on the panel brings up how war crimes are nothing new and how in conflict, the truly dark side of human nature emerges: this is what happens when you take young men away from family and friends, throw them in a foreign country for reasons they may not understand and make them fear for their lives (hell, it's hard to contain them in a classroom). The only thing we learned from Vietnam is that we've learned nothing from Vietnam.
