Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends
Y
Jan 21, 2006
PARK CITY -- We have all seen dehumanizing scenes of Marine boot camp in feature films like "Full Metal Jacket" and more recently "Jarhead," but nothing can compare to the visceral impact of the real deal in Patricia Foulkrod's masterful documentary "The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends." Chronicling the odyssey of soldiers from the time they enlist and learn to kill to their return home, doc is a stunning statement on how we mistreat our best and bravest young men. A savvy distributor or cable network could make this into a must-see film for concerned citizens in both red and blue states.
Foulkrod's film is not about taking a political side, though it is clear she is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. Her focus instead is on the dehumanizing of eager young men and their transformation into killing machines. Miraculously, she has uncovered never-before-seen footage: an ex-Soldier contributed material he shot during basic training and an embedded Italian journalist and others gave her scenes of wartime abuses against civilians. This is not the sanitized war seen on the six o'clock news.
About 10 soldiers are interviewed and bear witness to how their lives have been irreparably damaged. As one puts it, "we lost part of our soul in Iraq." And what is even more tragic is that upon their return, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders, the government has turned a blind eye to their problems. "The Ground Truth" gives the lie to the empty rhetoric of "support our troops" and the hollowness of yellow ribbons tied to trees. When another soldier goes to his counselor for help, she tells him, we don't treat conscientious objectors.
And these are men who went willingly to serve their country, some to get revenge for Sept. 11, others just to blow things up. But to a man, they say they were sold a bill of goods about the career training opportunities awaiting them in the military, the education afterwards and the medical benefits they would receive. The reality, unfortunately, was much different. Army Pfc. Herold Noel, a black man from Brooklyn, movingly recalls the despair he felt on his return and how he wound up homeless living in his car. There should be a surgeon's general's warning attached to the recruitment papers like there are to cigarettes, he says wryly.
Instead of the promises of heroism and glory, what they found in Iraq was the brutality of war. A soldier sings a popular marching song, part of the Navy indoctrination, about the joys of killing kids in school. And a shocking scene taken from a military helicopter shows an aerial view as a group of fleeing civilians are bombed. It may look like a video game but it's not.
Many of the disenfranchised veterans have banned together in various support groups and family members testify to the ripple effect of the mental and physical injuries suffered by their loved ones. The film takes pains to point out that the damage done to these people does not just affect them but is inherited by generations to come.
While the material is loaded this is not a polemic; the material speaks eloquently for itself. The servicemen are given the chance to share their stories, and Foulkrod and her editor, Rob Hall, seamlessly weave it together with the archival footage into a fluid narrative that is quietly and cumulatively devastating.
THE GROUND TRUTH: WHEN THE KILLING ENDS
Credits:
Director: Patricia Foulkrod
Producer: Patricia Foulkrod
Executive Producers: Faiz Kayyem, Louise Wannier, Andrew Mysko, Jodie Evans, Dal La Magna
Director of photography: Reuben Aaronson
Music: David Hodge
Editor: Rob Hall
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating
Foulkrod's film is not about taking a political side, though it is clear she is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. Her focus instead is on the dehumanizing of eager young men and their transformation into killing machines. Miraculously, she has uncovered never-before-seen footage: an ex-Soldier contributed material he shot during basic training and an embedded Italian journalist and others gave her scenes of wartime abuses against civilians. This is not the sanitized war seen on the six o'clock news.
About 10 soldiers are interviewed and bear witness to how their lives have been irreparably damaged. As one puts it, "we lost part of our soul in Iraq." And what is even more tragic is that upon their return, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders, the government has turned a blind eye to their problems. "The Ground Truth" gives the lie to the empty rhetoric of "support our troops" and the hollowness of yellow ribbons tied to trees. When another soldier goes to his counselor for help, she tells him, we don't treat conscientious objectors.
And these are men who went willingly to serve their country, some to get revenge for Sept. 11, others just to blow things up. But to a man, they say they were sold a bill of goods about the career training opportunities awaiting them in the military, the education afterwards and the medical benefits they would receive. The reality, unfortunately, was much different. Army Pfc. Herold Noel, a black man from Brooklyn, movingly recalls the despair he felt on his return and how he wound up homeless living in his car. There should be a surgeon's general's warning attached to the recruitment papers like there are to cigarettes, he says wryly.
Instead of the promises of heroism and glory, what they found in Iraq was the brutality of war. A soldier sings a popular marching song, part of the Navy indoctrination, about the joys of killing kids in school. And a shocking scene taken from a military helicopter shows an aerial view as a group of fleeing civilians are bombed. It may look like a video game but it's not.
Many of the disenfranchised veterans have banned together in various support groups and family members testify to the ripple effect of the mental and physical injuries suffered by their loved ones. The film takes pains to point out that the damage done to these people does not just affect them but is inherited by generations to come.
While the material is loaded this is not a polemic; the material speaks eloquently for itself. The servicemen are given the chance to share their stories, and Foulkrod and her editor, Rob Hall, seamlessly weave it together with the archival footage into a fluid narrative that is quietly and cumulatively devastating.
THE GROUND TRUTH: WHEN THE KILLING ENDS
Credits:
Director: Patricia Foulkrod
Producer: Patricia Foulkrod
Executive Producers: Faiz Kayyem, Louise Wannier, Andrew Mysko, Jodie Evans, Dal La Magna
Director of photography: Reuben Aaronson
Music: David Hodge
Editor: Rob Hall
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating
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