Operation Homecoming/No End in Sight

Over the past couple of weeks I've Netflixed a pair of the films nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards. They both deal with the topic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (as does the winner, Taxi to the Dark Side, which I have yet to see) but take fundamentally different approaches. Both are fine films, but one has the advantage of also being emotionally moving.

No End in Sight, directed by Charles Ferguson, relies on a heavy dose of factual information and interviews with key officials involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The effect is to convey the complete incompetence and arrogance of the top brass in executing this. Much of this information was fresh in my mind due to my recent reading of Imperial Life in the Emerald City. Ferguson and crew get interviews mostly from those who have seen the light on the error of the situation, and rely on news footage for those who still are carrying the administration's water (like Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and L. Paul Bremer, who was the viceroy of the occupation). I have the impression, though, that this film is pretty much preaching to the choir, and would be unlikely to change anyone's mind. I wouldn't be surprised if some right-winger had already made a documentary in response.

While No End in Sight is crisp journalism, well-done but a bit arid, Operation Homecoming is a completely different animal. It doesn't approach the conflict from a political standpoint, except to suggest that all war is a crime (as Ernest Hemingway once said). The film is about soldiers in the conflict who, with the assistance of professional authors, have written about their experiences. As someone who has never been in combat, I will never be able to fully comprehend what they went through, but by watching films like this, as well as reading what they have written, I can have a slightly better perspective.

Basically the film is structured as a series of interviews with the participating soldiers, followed by reenactments of what they have written. Interviews with writers who are veterans, such as Tim O'Brien, Anthony Swofford, and Tobias Wolff, are interspersed. I found all of the segments of some interest, but some are particularly strong, such as a poem called What Every Soldier Should Know, by Brian Turner, and a piece of reportage called Men in Black, by Colby Buzzell. That bit of prose is reenacted through animation which looks like a graphic novel, and is about Buzzell being involved in an ambush in Mosul. It is as thrilling and heart-pounding as any war film.

Other soldiers write about coming to terms with their subtle racism (many of the soldiers refer to all of the Iraqis as "Haji," but one man, after dealing with a father who has lost a son, realizes that "he is not Haji." A doctor who works with a medical evacuation unit writes about the harrowing experience of treating a soldier who has had part of his leg blown away. The most emotionally moving segment, though, is the last one, which is about a man accompanying the remains of a dead soldier back to his hometown in Wyoming. The writing is very spared and to the point, but hearing it read (by Robert Duvall, no less) while seeing the images of his hometown, and finally his grave, choked me up.

As the doctor pointed out, war has been the same since the Romans, and ever since then the participants have been writing about it to deal with the trauma. Operation Homecoming is a terrific view of that creative process.