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Oct. 2nd, 2004 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosSo due to the fact that Shaun of the Dead didn't start until four hours later -- *kicks movie theater* -- I went to see Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry.
The documentary itself is really well-constructed, presents Kerry in a good light (of course), and tugs a few tears from you.
You come out of it realizing that it took just as much bravery to go to Vietnam as it did to come back and admit the war was a mistake. (Then again, no one should need a movie to know that much about Vietnam.) They never mention his presidential run, nor do they bring up Iraq. But there's no way in hell you can get through the movie without thinking about either. During the footage of his testimony before the Senate committee, I remember thinking at one point, probably when he said the line about asking someone to be the last man to die for a mistake, that I'd much rather cast my vote for a man who changes his mind than a man who refuses to budge on the mistake that's cost nearly 1,100 American lives and considerably more Iraqi lives at this point.
That said, I want to go to his house, drag him to the theater, and point to the screen every time his younger self, and say, "See that? That is how I want you to act!" There's a lot of footage of Kerry being interviewed by reporters on the Mall, where the Vietnam Veterans Against War camped out, and his younger self is such a calming, intelligent, well-spoken influence on the others.
Did you ever meet someone who wasn't loud and wasn't intense, but managed to make his words important simply by the way he composed them and the way he composed himself? It's this kind of quiet fire that had to have been this comforting contrast for everybody whose delicate sensibilities were shocked by the protesters. (There's a great example of this in a bit where the VVAW marches past a group of Daughters of the American Revolution, and one old lady tells a protester, "Oh, the troops won't like you for doing this." To which the protester said, "Lady, we are the troops." Heh. Good on ya.) There's this series of images of the protesters on the Mall, all these unshaven, long-haired guys in old fatigues, and then you see Kerry sitting among them, probably the only clean-shaven one in the bunch looking much like a narc who's dressed up in costume to infiltrate the VVAW. He looks like a safe young guy whom you'd assume was a good, upstanding veteran, and then he speaks and he's not only on their side, but he makes you understand their side, as well.
Now, let me get something straight. I don't need Kerry to have that passion. I don't need him to be exciting. Clinton and Dubya were exciting in their own ways and look what they've gotten us into in the last few years. I would like him to be exciting, but like I said, see Clinton and Dubya. On the other hand, he has two requirements I like in a president -- he's smart, and he's generally a nice guy, as far as I can tell. I don't care if the only kind of recreation he does is hours and hours of computer Solitaire as long as he's mentally capable to do the job and he can do it without offending the rest of the planet at the same time.
Would I like him to be more decisive? It'd be nice. But considering there's evidence that he can feel remorse for some of his mistakes (if not all of them ... well, nobody's perfect), then he's still one up on Bush.
So, anyway, back to the movie. The first bit is a lot of explanation of the Swift Boats and their methods. They were mostly following the coastlines, but then their orders were changed so that they were sent up the rivers to flush out the VC. Considering the amount of dense cover on the riverbanks and the fact that the Swift Boat engines could be heard two miles away, the attacks were brutal, pretty much happened daily, and resulted in a 90% casualty rate. The day of the Purple Heart that starts all the arguments, the Swift Boat in question was under heavy fire when Rassman falls into the water and is open to gunfire while trying to get onto the boat using a net they threw him. So Kerry has another guy fire the boat's guns at the people shooting at them while he and his wounded arm go down to pull Rassman aboard. Since there were only five guys to a Swift Boat, sending the ones who had two working arms to fire the guns while he goes to help the other guy seems reasonable, but then again, like I know how people react under heavy fire in a war zone.
Speaking of war zones, the reason I brought up the O'Reilly Factor in the text cut is that, unfortunately, I listen to Bill O'Reilly on the radio at least three days out of the week. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say? Anyway, on more than one occassion -- try dozens of times -- I've heard callers talking about Kerry's service and shrugging it off as "only four months." These are usually the times I want to reach through the radio and beat these people over the head with snow shovels. I'm sorry, only four and a half months? I guess you're right. Four and a half months in a freakin' war zone means nothing. Now, if it'd been five months, that'd mean something. *eye roll* I'll give them credit -- if O'Reilly doesn't call them on it (no shit, he does sometimes -- frightening, isn't it?), some vet will call them up and point out they didn't know there was a time limit on when their service in a war zone qualified. I'm sure anyone who was in Vietnam a month or two months and then got his legs blown off is really happy to know that if Kerry's service means nothing, then his must really not mean anything.
When the VVAW go to throw their medals back, it's tough to watch. It's times like this that at the very least, I wish the people who rail on Kerry and other vets for throwing their medals away would just watch the footage. The vets form a line, they get to speak, and then they throw their medals over the quickly constructed fence that's been put up. And it's hard. It's difficult, and it hurts, and there's this shot of Rusty Sachs (I think it was) sobbing while he embraces the man who was behind him in line, who's also sobbing. Anyone who thinks it was easy for all of them to toss the medals needs to realize that this was a betrayal of the worst kind. These were young guys who'd gone off to fight a war that they later realized was an egregious mistake. How do you keep medals proclaming your bravery during a mistake? How do you keep a Purple Heart for an injury you got during a lie?
They speak earlier in the film about Vietnam in an unconscious reference to what's going on today. They were told they were going over there to save these people from communism, and once they'd been there a while, the Vietnamese just wanted the soldiers the hell out of their country. And with a 50% rate of killing civilians, who wouldn't?
There's a lot of references to the higher-ups telling the soldiers how to tell the VC from the civilians, not to mention other chilling details they get to when they get to the Winter Soldier Hearings. If a villager was running, he was a VC; if he was standing still, he was a well-disciplined VC. How many of the dead were VC? Oh, all of them, of course. Never count the prisoners going into a plane, count them coming off, because you never want to explain about the ones you had to "throw out."
So then the Vietnam Veterans Against the War gets formed, and they go march on Washington and sleep on the Mall. The whole time they're on the Mall, the courts keep trying to figure out whether or not to kick them off -- the war-vet DC cops refuse to move them, and at one point a protester says, "They made me fight a war, and that's got to be more illegal than sleeping in a park."
Then Kerry goes to speak before the Senate Committee and just ... man. This is what I'm talking about. He wasn't excitable, he wasn't overzealous, he simply stated his case clearly and concisely in a subdued yet passionate manner. (A great bit from the movie was that the guy who went with him held the door open for him to go into the room, and he stopped and stepped back when he saw there was a full house, saying, "Oh, shit." Hee! I want to hear him say, "Oh, shit!" John, say, "Oh, shit!" *pokes the presidential nominee*)
Just so I don't ramble on too long (too late), some other good lines:
-- In reference to the medals being thrown over the fence, one interviewee quoted Napoleon, who said, "Imagine what you can get a man to do for a ribbon."
-- Nixon and Haldemann talking about Kerry saying how he's very "Kennedy-like" (*snerk*) and how they have to "destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." (Which, you can imagine, got the biggest laugh.)
-- What Kerry said before tossing his medals over the fence: "I don't do this to oppose anyone. I only do this to help my country wake up." Amen.
In summation, good film. Not a perfect picture of Kerry, but a pretty damn good one. It does, however, make you long for someone to show him that old footage and remind him of what he used to look like with more spirit in him.
In a related story, how come every time there's a ballot mistake, it usually seems to end up in Bush's favor?
EDIT: Buildings of Disaster sculpture -- Damn, those are tasteless and tacky even for me. And when the hell did O.J.'s car chase become a Building of Disaster? That is so not a building. The artist could seriously have gone back a few years if he or she was that desperate, you know. The Cocoanut Grove. The Kansas City Hyatt. The Iriquois Theater. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. H.H. Holmes' house of horrors. Hell, I'd even count the Ringling Brothers tent in Hartford in 1944 as a Building of Disaster before I'd count O.J.'s car chase. Sheesh. (Of course, with the exception of the Hyatt, those would require a sense of disaster history that extends before 1980.)
DISASTER-MOVIE CLICHED HEROINE OF EDIT: U.S. Raises Alert for Mount St. Helens -- The hundreds of visitors at the Johnston Ridge Observatory just five miles from Mount St. Helens were asked to leave. They went quickly to their cars and drove from the scene. I know it's getting serious there, but it's still an amusing mental image. "Say, did you people ever see Dante's Peak? Because unless you bought your car's tires from Linda Hamilton, you might want to leave now, what with all of that exploding landscape and whatnot."
The documentary itself is really well-constructed, presents Kerry in a good light (of course), and tugs a few tears from you.
You come out of it realizing that it took just as much bravery to go to Vietnam as it did to come back and admit the war was a mistake. (Then again, no one should need a movie to know that much about Vietnam.) They never mention his presidential run, nor do they bring up Iraq. But there's no way in hell you can get through the movie without thinking about either. During the footage of his testimony before the Senate committee, I remember thinking at one point, probably when he said the line about asking someone to be the last man to die for a mistake, that I'd much rather cast my vote for a man who changes his mind than a man who refuses to budge on the mistake that's cost nearly 1,100 American lives and considerably more Iraqi lives at this point.
That said, I want to go to his house, drag him to the theater, and point to the screen every time his younger self, and say, "See that? That is how I want you to act!" There's a lot of footage of Kerry being interviewed by reporters on the Mall, where the Vietnam Veterans Against War camped out, and his younger self is such a calming, intelligent, well-spoken influence on the others.
Did you ever meet someone who wasn't loud and wasn't intense, but managed to make his words important simply by the way he composed them and the way he composed himself? It's this kind of quiet fire that had to have been this comforting contrast for everybody whose delicate sensibilities were shocked by the protesters. (There's a great example of this in a bit where the VVAW marches past a group of Daughters of the American Revolution, and one old lady tells a protester, "Oh, the troops won't like you for doing this." To which the protester said, "Lady, we are the troops." Heh. Good on ya.) There's this series of images of the protesters on the Mall, all these unshaven, long-haired guys in old fatigues, and then you see Kerry sitting among them, probably the only clean-shaven one in the bunch looking much like a narc who's dressed up in costume to infiltrate the VVAW. He looks like a safe young guy whom you'd assume was a good, upstanding veteran, and then he speaks and he's not only on their side, but he makes you understand their side, as well.
Now, let me get something straight. I don't need Kerry to have that passion. I don't need him to be exciting. Clinton and Dubya were exciting in their own ways and look what they've gotten us into in the last few years. I would like him to be exciting, but like I said, see Clinton and Dubya. On the other hand, he has two requirements I like in a president -- he's smart, and he's generally a nice guy, as far as I can tell. I don't care if the only kind of recreation he does is hours and hours of computer Solitaire as long as he's mentally capable to do the job and he can do it without offending the rest of the planet at the same time.
Would I like him to be more decisive? It'd be nice. But considering there's evidence that he can feel remorse for some of his mistakes (if not all of them ... well, nobody's perfect), then he's still one up on Bush.
So, anyway, back to the movie. The first bit is a lot of explanation of the Swift Boats and their methods. They were mostly following the coastlines, but then their orders were changed so that they were sent up the rivers to flush out the VC. Considering the amount of dense cover on the riverbanks and the fact that the Swift Boat engines could be heard two miles away, the attacks were brutal, pretty much happened daily, and resulted in a 90% casualty rate. The day of the Purple Heart that starts all the arguments, the Swift Boat in question was under heavy fire when Rassman falls into the water and is open to gunfire while trying to get onto the boat using a net they threw him. So Kerry has another guy fire the boat's guns at the people shooting at them while he and his wounded arm go down to pull Rassman aboard. Since there were only five guys to a Swift Boat, sending the ones who had two working arms to fire the guns while he goes to help the other guy seems reasonable, but then again, like I know how people react under heavy fire in a war zone.
Speaking of war zones, the reason I brought up the O'Reilly Factor in the text cut is that, unfortunately, I listen to Bill O'Reilly on the radio at least three days out of the week. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say? Anyway, on more than one occassion -- try dozens of times -- I've heard callers talking about Kerry's service and shrugging it off as "only four months." These are usually the times I want to reach through the radio and beat these people over the head with snow shovels. I'm sorry, only four and a half months? I guess you're right. Four and a half months in a freakin' war zone means nothing. Now, if it'd been five months, that'd mean something. *eye roll* I'll give them credit -- if O'Reilly doesn't call them on it (no shit, he does sometimes -- frightening, isn't it?), some vet will call them up and point out they didn't know there was a time limit on when their service in a war zone qualified. I'm sure anyone who was in Vietnam a month or two months and then got his legs blown off is really happy to know that if Kerry's service means nothing, then his must really not mean anything.
When the VVAW go to throw their medals back, it's tough to watch. It's times like this that at the very least, I wish the people who rail on Kerry and other vets for throwing their medals away would just watch the footage. The vets form a line, they get to speak, and then they throw their medals over the quickly constructed fence that's been put up. And it's hard. It's difficult, and it hurts, and there's this shot of Rusty Sachs (I think it was) sobbing while he embraces the man who was behind him in line, who's also sobbing. Anyone who thinks it was easy for all of them to toss the medals needs to realize that this was a betrayal of the worst kind. These were young guys who'd gone off to fight a war that they later realized was an egregious mistake. How do you keep medals proclaming your bravery during a mistake? How do you keep a Purple Heart for an injury you got during a lie?
They speak earlier in the film about Vietnam in an unconscious reference to what's going on today. They were told they were going over there to save these people from communism, and once they'd been there a while, the Vietnamese just wanted the soldiers the hell out of their country. And with a 50% rate of killing civilians, who wouldn't?
There's a lot of references to the higher-ups telling the soldiers how to tell the VC from the civilians, not to mention other chilling details they get to when they get to the Winter Soldier Hearings. If a villager was running, he was a VC; if he was standing still, he was a well-disciplined VC. How many of the dead were VC? Oh, all of them, of course. Never count the prisoners going into a plane, count them coming off, because you never want to explain about the ones you had to "throw out."
So then the Vietnam Veterans Against the War gets formed, and they go march on Washington and sleep on the Mall. The whole time they're on the Mall, the courts keep trying to figure out whether or not to kick them off -- the war-vet DC cops refuse to move them, and at one point a protester says, "They made me fight a war, and that's got to be more illegal than sleeping in a park."
Then Kerry goes to speak before the Senate Committee and just ... man. This is what I'm talking about. He wasn't excitable, he wasn't overzealous, he simply stated his case clearly and concisely in a subdued yet passionate manner. (A great bit from the movie was that the guy who went with him held the door open for him to go into the room, and he stopped and stepped back when he saw there was a full house, saying, "Oh, shit." Hee! I want to hear him say, "Oh, shit!" John, say, "Oh, shit!" *pokes the presidential nominee*)
Just so I don't ramble on too long (too late), some other good lines:
-- In reference to the medals being thrown over the fence, one interviewee quoted Napoleon, who said, "Imagine what you can get a man to do for a ribbon."
-- Nixon and Haldemann talking about Kerry saying how he's very "Kennedy-like" (*snerk*) and how they have to "destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." (Which, you can imagine, got the biggest laugh.)
-- What Kerry said before tossing his medals over the fence: "I don't do this to oppose anyone. I only do this to help my country wake up." Amen.
In summation, good film. Not a perfect picture of Kerry, but a pretty damn good one. It does, however, make you long for someone to show him that old footage and remind him of what he used to look like with more spirit in him.
In a related story, how come every time there's a ballot mistake, it usually seems to end up in Bush's favor?
EDIT: Buildings of Disaster sculpture -- Damn, those are tasteless and tacky even for me. And when the hell did O.J.'s car chase become a Building of Disaster? That is so not a building. The artist could seriously have gone back a few years if he or she was that desperate, you know. The Cocoanut Grove. The Kansas City Hyatt. The Iriquois Theater. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. H.H. Holmes' house of horrors. Hell, I'd even count the Ringling Brothers tent in Hartford in 1944 as a Building of Disaster before I'd count O.J.'s car chase. Sheesh. (Of course, with the exception of the Hyatt, those would require a sense of disaster history that extends before 1980.)
DISASTER-MOVIE CLICHED HEROINE OF EDIT: U.S. Raises Alert for Mount St. Helens -- The hundreds of visitors at the Johnston Ridge Observatory just five miles from Mount St. Helens were asked to leave. They went quickly to their cars and drove from the scene. I know it's getting serious there, but it's still an amusing mental image. "Say, did you people ever see Dante's Peak? Because unless you bought your car's tires from Linda Hamilton, you might want to leave now, what with all of that exploding landscape and whatnot."
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Date: 2004-10-02 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-02 09:52 pm (UTC)But at least it didn't have a suicidal maniac grandma.
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Date: 2004-10-03 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-02 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-03 03:57 am (UTC)Bump.