"Last Letters Home"

[Guest DubWiser]

LAST LETTERS HOME: VOICES FROM AMERICAN TROOPS FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS OF IRAQ

 

Mon Nov 1, 6:27 PM ET  Television - Variety

 

 

BRIAN LOWRY

 

HBO has presented the Bush administration something of a gift by waiting until after Election Day to air this achingly painful special, which even with its understated, no-frills approach provides a devastating window into the war in Iraq (news - web sites). The pay service plans to make this Veteran's Day telecast available on an open channel to all cable subscribers, and whatever one's political leanings "Last Letters Home's" wrenching portrait of loss and sacrifice deserves to be seen --- especially by those who blithely use "Support the troops" as an applause line.

 

 

 

Writer-producer-director Bill Couturie reaches out to a geographically and ethnically diverse group of parents, spouses and siblings that have all lost loved ones --- most under the age of 30 --- in Iraq. Those relatives then read letters from the fallen soldiers, some of which were received posthumously.

 

 

Thoughtful, articulate and sometimes funny, the missives in "Last Letters Home" obviously provide ammunition for antiwar activists, as soldiers chronicle the horrid conditions they face and their yearning to be back Stateside. "There's no place like home [click]," one writes three times, adding, "Damn, it didn't work again."

 

 

Despite a spare approach that augments the readings with little more than a melancholy score and pictures of the deceased, some will argue that this is just a cheap tug at the heartstrings, bringing in relatives to make a not-so-subtle case against the war.

 

 

Still, this production (backed by the New York Times and Life Books) also more subtly examines the varied means by which people deal with grief, simultaneously personalizing the nightly news --- as in "Five more died in Iraq today" --- by putting faces on the casualties. In that respect, consider this a logical expansion upon the roll call of names that "Nightline" presented last spring.

 

 

The problem, of course, is that such coverage has become politicized, with ideologically driven charges and countercharges that seek to force everything into the boxes of either cheerleading for the war or agitating against it.

 

 

Those conflicting views, however, both ought to be capable of recognizing the consequences of war, and the toll exacted on those who fight and die in them. Hearing Army Specialist Michelle Witmer, for example, describe her post in Iraq as "like being in the worst ghetto you can ever imagine" resonates beyond the mere tragedy of her death at age 19.

 

 

"Last Letters Home" won't make anyone sleep easier, nor is it pleasant to watch. Nevertheless, it's a moving reminder that the call to "Support Our Troops" is a subjective one, and that those who love and support them the most yearn only to see them resting back in their beds, not inside a flag-draped coffin.

 

 

--

 

 

(DOCU ; HBO, THUR. NOV. 11, 9 P.M.)

[Guest Cerebus]

Can't wait to see it.

[2GOLD 0]

"Last Letters Home" won't make anyone sleep easier, nor is it pleasant to watch. Nevertheless, it's a moving reminder that the call to "Support Our Troops" is a subjective one, and that those who love and support them the most yearn only to see them resting back in their beds, not inside a flag-draped coffin.

 

 

Huh???

I may be wrong here, but everyone who supports the troops want them home safe and sound. There is nothing subjective about it.

 

Just because we don't want everyone to immediately pack their shit doesn't mean we don't want them home as soon as possible and safely in their beds. That is a piss poor quote, I'm sorry.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Personally, I don't support the troops -- I want them to stay in Iraq FOREVER...