.HBO's `Alive Days' lets returning soldiers tell their own stories
In an interview earlier this summer about his upcoming PBS miniseries "The War," documentary filmmaker Ken Burns spoke about how little civilians understand about what soldiers go through in battle.
To make his point, Burns recalled a radio report by the late journalist Eric Sevareid during the final days of World War II. "Only the soldier really lives the war," Sevareid told his listeners. "The journalist does not. He may share the soldier's outward life and dangers, but he cannot share his inner life . . .
"War happens inside a man, and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers."
Sevareid said those words in 1945, but he could just as easily have been talking about the 10 soldiers interviewed in "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" (10:30 p.m. Sunday, HBO). The servicemen and women all cheated death and came home with scars both painfully visible and invisible. Listening to them tell their stories is hard, very hard, because of the chasm of knowledge between their experiences in war and what the viewer at home knows from newscasts.
Filmed on a soundstage in New York, the interviews are intense and, often, chilling, particularly when the soldiers talk about their escapes from death - moments that have become known to the troops as "alive days," a kind of second birthday.
Bryan Anderson is a 25-year-old Army sergeant and former gymnast and boxer who had both legs blown off by a roadside bomb while driving a Humvee.
"I was like, `Oh, we got hit. We got hit.' And then I had blood on my face and the flies were landing all over my face," he says in the film. "So I wiped my face to get rid of the flies. And that is when I noticed that my fingertip was gone. So I was like, `Oh. OK.'
"So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like, `That's not bad.' And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that this chunk of my hand was gone. So I was like, `OK, still not bad. I can live with that.'
"And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left hand, there was nothing there. So I was like, `Uh, that's gone.' And then I looked down, and I saw that my legs were gone."
Gandolfini interviews
Produced by James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," who serves as a low-key interviewer, "Alive Day Memories" was originally intended to be a more elaborate piece shot at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. It was going to follow soldiers injured in Iraq - for the first time in our history, 90 percent of those wounded survive - on a 24/7 basis and was to include the soldiers' families and friends.
But just before filming began, Walter Reed officials withdrew permission to shoot at the hospital. (A few days later, the first stories broke about inadequate care at the facility.)
That resulted in a less elaborate approach - and that may have been for the better. There is some video from the war, pieces of home videos and bits of footage shot since the soldiers' return to civilian life. But the emphasis is on the soldiers' own words, which carry such power that no filmmaking frills are needed.
It's also important that there is no overt political agenda at play in "Alive Day Memories," although viewers are certain to layer their own perceptions of the war on what they see and hear. In an interview back in July, Gandolfini said, "I have plenty of personal views on Iraq" but "it's not about me."
Not that the soldiers don't have varying opinions of the war and its worth.
Dawn Halfaker, a 28-year-old Army first lieutenant who lost her right arm and shoulder, says in the film that "people come away from the war wanting to feel they made a difference, wanting to feel their sacrifice was worth it. War is horrible . . . but I'm glad I did it."
What is important about "Alive Day Memories" is that it gives viewers at least a glimpse into war and its consequences for those who fight.
Halfaker told reporters that "if you were to take a cross section and pluck anybody from any war, anybody who has ever fought, they would be able to watch this and say, `Wow, this is what it really is like, you know. This is what you don't see.' "
Soldiers sharing
That comes through most strongly in a sequence involving Crystal Davis, a 23-year-old Army engineer whose right leg was shattered. When Davis - who looks and talks like she just walked out of a Gretchen Wilson song - returns to her home town of Camden, S.C., she receives a medal from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars.
As Davis stands, in her uniform, with the veterans of World War II and Korea, you can tell from her attitude - and theirs - that she shares far more with these men in their 70s and 80s than she ever will with those who have never gone to war.
`Alive Day Memories:
Home From Iraq'
****
Airing: 10:30 p.m. Sunday, HBO
MercuryNews
To make his point, Burns recalled a radio report by the late journalist Eric Sevareid during the final days of World War II. "Only the soldier really lives the war," Sevareid told his listeners. "The journalist does not. He may share the soldier's outward life and dangers, but he cannot share his inner life . . .
"War happens inside a man, and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers."
Sevareid said those words in 1945, but he could just as easily have been talking about the 10 soldiers interviewed in "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" (10:30 p.m. Sunday, HBO). The servicemen and women all cheated death and came home with scars both painfully visible and invisible. Listening to them tell their stories is hard, very hard, because of the chasm of knowledge between their experiences in war and what the viewer at home knows from newscasts.
Filmed on a soundstage in New York, the interviews are intense and, often, chilling, particularly when the soldiers talk about their escapes from death - moments that have become known to the troops as "alive days," a kind of second birthday.
Bryan Anderson is a 25-year-old Army sergeant and former gymnast and boxer who had both legs blown off by a roadside bomb while driving a Humvee.
"I was like, `Oh, we got hit. We got hit.' And then I had blood on my face and the flies were landing all over my face," he says in the film. "So I wiped my face to get rid of the flies. And that is when I noticed that my fingertip was gone. So I was like, `Oh. OK.'
"So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like, `That's not bad.' And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that this chunk of my hand was gone. So I was like, `OK, still not bad. I can live with that.'
"And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left hand, there was nothing there. So I was like, `Uh, that's gone.' And then I looked down, and I saw that my legs were gone."
Gandolfini interviews
Produced by James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," who serves as a low-key interviewer, "Alive Day Memories" was originally intended to be a more elaborate piece shot at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. It was going to follow soldiers injured in Iraq - for the first time in our history, 90 percent of those wounded survive - on a 24/7 basis and was to include the soldiers' families and friends.
But just before filming began, Walter Reed officials withdrew permission to shoot at the hospital. (A few days later, the first stories broke about inadequate care at the facility.)
That resulted in a less elaborate approach - and that may have been for the better. There is some video from the war, pieces of home videos and bits of footage shot since the soldiers' return to civilian life. But the emphasis is on the soldiers' own words, which carry such power that no filmmaking frills are needed.
It's also important that there is no overt political agenda at play in "Alive Day Memories," although viewers are certain to layer their own perceptions of the war on what they see and hear. In an interview back in July, Gandolfini said, "I have plenty of personal views on Iraq" but "it's not about me."
Not that the soldiers don't have varying opinions of the war and its worth.
Dawn Halfaker, a 28-year-old Army first lieutenant who lost her right arm and shoulder, says in the film that "people come away from the war wanting to feel they made a difference, wanting to feel their sacrifice was worth it. War is horrible . . . but I'm glad I did it."
What is important about "Alive Day Memories" is that it gives viewers at least a glimpse into war and its consequences for those who fight.
Halfaker told reporters that "if you were to take a cross section and pluck anybody from any war, anybody who has ever fought, they would be able to watch this and say, `Wow, this is what it really is like, you know. This is what you don't see.' "
Soldiers sharing
That comes through most strongly in a sequence involving Crystal Davis, a 23-year-old Army engineer whose right leg was shattered. When Davis - who looks and talks like she just walked out of a Gretchen Wilson song - returns to her home town of Camden, S.C., she receives a medal from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars.
As Davis stands, in her uniform, with the veterans of World War II and Korea, you can tell from her attitude - and theirs - that she shares far more with these men in their 70s and 80s than she ever will with those who have never gone to war.
`Alive Day Memories:
Home From Iraq'
****
Airing: 10:30 p.m. Sunday, HBO
MercuryNews
posted by madtom at 10:13 PM
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