"Sir, No Sir!"
i've never before spent $20 to be on the constant verge of tears for 90 minutes, and come out feeling like it was time and money well spent.
such was the case when my wife and i walked down to the Ojai Playhouse this past sunday to catch the Ojai Film Festival's showing of "Sir, No Sir!", about the anti-war movement among GI's during Vietnam.
my eyes started to burn during the opening credits, as a slightly-slowed aerial shot treated us to the rolling, green Vietnamese countryside....and then the explosions started to unfold below us.
these guys they found that had resisted the war were amazing. they are so sincere, and so pained, and the logic that they've used to define their positions is incredibly sound. their methods of resistance were so creative and risky...nothing like we see now.
the tales of their experiences - the things that made them stop and think for the first time that war is not okay - are powerful, like "i was doing it right, but i wasnt doing right" and "i resolved never to be the one to pull the trigger for the bullet that would put someone else in a hospital where they'd ask the attendants to kill them."
this film covered race issues (specifically, African Americans thinking through the racist aspects of killing the Vietnamese), propaganda, political lies, and the lengths and tactics to which our own government would go to suppress this movement. at several points it seemed that the motto was "if you wont fight and die over there, you'll do it here", as riot police and other military personnel were dispatched to cut down rallies and marches composed mostly of GI's.
when it was all over, i asked Jessie why she thought there wasnt that type of movement among the military now. she observed that the most dramatic difference was the Draft. the guys that went to Vietnam didnt go to war by choice....they weren't necessarily actively against it at first, but neither did they seek it out.
today's volunteer military means that those who sign up do so on purpose, hopefully with the understanding that they may have to fight and die. this seems to mean that the military population is comprised mostly of people willing to kill. therefore we find only isolated, flash-in-the-pan stories of resisters, not the broad movement described by this film.
my plan is to purchase this film on behalf of the Ojai Peace Coalition and have in-home showings of it whenever there's a willing host. i'll post showings as they are created.
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Comments (2)
Hey evan, great review of the film. I think there is a large contingent of enlistees who go in because they feel they have no choice and that this is the only way to get ahead in life, get a college education, healthcare for their family, etc. I'm sure they didn't think it would all end up this way for them.
Comment #1 Posted by: Lisa Snider | August 25, 2006 04:15 PM
There has been much discussion among those of us who oppose the Bush administration policy since 9/11 about the most popular media supporting the admin. policies, perhaps because they are only allowed to cover stories from one side (so-called embedded reporters, for example). I think there may be more resistence than we know because we are not seeing it in the press. Also, those still in the service may not know about others like them who oppose the status quo. and may be discouraged into not taking action themselves. The US government and media has done such a good job of whipping us into a frenzy to destroy the Muslim extremists (every man, woman and child) who "hate our freedom" that I'm sure a lot of the enlistees have bought the propaganda hook, line and sinker. Mixing metaphors and writing from a distinctly personal and non-researched point of view. Must be morning!
Comment #2 Posted by: Heather | August 26, 2006 08:49 AM