Saturday Night At The Movies
Incitement to mutiny
A film review by Dennis Hartley
There have been a good number of excellent documentaries examining various aspects of the Sixties protest movement (“The War At Home”, “Berkeley In The Sixties” and the more recent “Weather Underground”), but none focusing specifically on the members of the armed forces who openly opposed the Vietnam war-until now. “Sir! No Sir!” is a fascinating look at the GI anti-war movement during the era. Director David Zeigler combines present-day interviews with archival footage to good effect in this well-paced documentary. Most people who have seen Oliver Stone’s “Born On The Fourth Of July” were likely left with the impression that paralyzed Vietnam vet and activist Ron Kovic was the main impetus and focus of the GI movement, but Kovic’s story was in fact only one of thousands (Kovic, interestingly, is never mentioned in Ziegler’s film). While the aforementioned Kovic received a certain amount of media attention at the time, the full extent and history of the involvement by military personnel has been suppressed from public knowledge for a number of years, and that is the focus of “Sir! No Sir”. In one very astutely chosen archival clip, a CBS news anchor somberly announces that there appears to be some problems with “troop morale” in Vietnam (while in the meantime, behind closed doors, the US military was apparently imprisoning dissenting GIs left and right under “incitement to mutiny” charges, sometimes just for being overheard expressing anti-war sentiments). All the present-day interviewees (Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine vets) have interesting (and at times emotionally wrenching) stories to share. Jane Fonda speaks candidly about her infamous “FTA” (“Fuck The Army”) shows that she organized for troops as an antidote to the somewhat creaky and more traditional Bob Hope USO tours. Well worth your time. The film would make an excellent double bill with the classic documentary “Hearts And Minds” (DVD available from Criterion).
—- Dennis Hartley
(Ironweed Film Club DVD 2006; info @ www.ironweedfilms.com)
Editors note: Dennis Hartley is a Seattle based comedian, radio personality, film buff and writer. He has agreed to review films for the discerning Hullabaloo reader on a semi-regular basis. We have joined the Ironweed Film Club (what the NY Times calls a “progressive film festival” on DVD) and will be featuring those films, as well as others that we think will be of interest to you liberal schmarties. Please welcome him to our motley crew.
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