"...But They Do Not End Where You Please."
~Machiavelli
This is a profound film, although not a perfect film. As a psychologist and as a veteran of the Gulf War of 1991, I whole-heartedly recommend this movie for anyone who has - fortunately - never been to war but who knows and loves someone who has, and who has felt pain because of the disconnection between you and your loved one. Just as Coppola's "Apocalypse Now!" revealed to us some of the horrors and emotional torment of combat on the ground in Vietnam, so this movie shows us that the war doesn't end for the soldier, sailor or airman when he or she returns home. For many, the homecoming is the beginning of the worst part. After having seen your friends maimed or killed while you survived, or having survived but been maimed yourself in either body or spirit, how do you reconnect with those who haven't seen what you've seen? How do you even begin to disclose to your wife, your lover, your sibling or child, the depth of your pain and the vastness of your loss of innocence, and optimism, and your faith in the essential goodness of your fellow man? How do you begin to let them know how emotionally crippled and monstrous you feel in a way that won't lead them to see you as the crippled monster you unrealistically feel yourself to be?
This film, despite its weaknesses, admirably portrays some of that frightening and difficult process. It is not a film for those afraid of facing the truth.
~Machiavelli
This is a profound film, although not a perfect film. As a psychologist and as a veteran of the Gulf War of 1991, I whole-heartedly recommend this movie for anyone who has - fortunately - never been to war but who knows and loves someone who has, and who has felt pain because of the disconnection between you and your loved one. Just as Coppola's "Apocalypse Now!" revealed to us some of the horrors and emotional torment of combat on the ground in Vietnam, so this movie shows us that the war doesn't end for the soldier, sailor or airman when he or she returns home. For many, the homecoming is the beginning of the worst part. After having seen your friends maimed or killed while you survived, or having survived but been maimed yourself in either body or spirit, how do you reconnect with those who haven't seen what you've seen? How do you even begin to disclose to your wife, your lover, your sibling or child, the depth of your pain and the vastness of your loss of innocence, and optimism, and your faith in the essential goodness of your fellow man? How do you begin to let them know how emotionally crippled and monstrous you feel in a way that won't lead them to see you as the crippled monster you unrealistically feel yourself to be?
This film, despite its weaknesses, admirably portrays some of that frightening and difficult process. It is not a film for those afraid of facing the truth.