07.30.2010
Operation Homecoming
A very sad documentary this was! It was sad because it was honest. It was all the truth. You wouldn't need to have read the story How to Tell a True War Story to know that all these interviews on this video is true. While watching the documentary Operation Homecoming, it is almost difficult to focus on the fact the reason we were watching it was for the writers voice, not the soldier's voice. The soldier's voice is the writer's voice, however I was more focused on the events they were telling about.
One indication to me that these are true stories is because it was cut very dry. They told us things that we did not want to hear. Things that I did not want to hear that they told us was that they actually wait for war to begin. This is honest, I definitely believe it, and respect their honesty. They don't sugar coat these stories either; not over their cussing or disturbing stories that wouldn't normally would be a in a book you buy. In the beginning of this documentary we heard one of the soldier's stories that he wrote while deployed, that he left in his pocket the entire time he was in war. It is how he got through it. It is how all these men got through it. They wrote because it was the only thing they could do to get their stories out, and keep them a little sane. They have one soldier even tell us "I thought it would be all over the news, and there was hardly any mention of it... I thought to myself; Well, If no one is going to write about it, I will take a shot at it".
As that same soldier also tells us, these are not much of romantic stories in his eyes. As I discussed earlier, this documentary is not romantic, at least not to me. I don't think it was meant to be. One soldier that I enjoyed listening to talked about what he went through while in the middle of gunfire. It was brave of him to let us know that he did not fire at just anyone. He disobeyed his senior officer when he told him to "just fucking waste them!". He told us that they people he was suppose to have waste, he could tell were just spectators. There are first of all, not a lot off troops that would have done that, but to admit it is a whole different story. I am sure it is not something that anyone would be proud of, but they do it because they think they have to. He also said he waited when it came to the next people he saw too because they did not have weapons. This shows us that he is really paying attention to where he is firing his weapon. He is not just all over the place, hoping to hit something.
While this same soldier is talking, I hear when the writer in him comes out. This s another way I know it is a true war story. HE is telling us about a conversation after all the combat was over that he was having with his sergeant. They are discussing whether or not he is 'OK'. After he answers 'I don't know' to this question, he adds a little more detail by telling us that his sergeant bummed a cigarette off of him before he went on to what exactly he said. This gave me a visual of their conversation, even though we are watching a video. If this hadn't been a video, somehow that one line would have made this story and their conversation come to life for me. It made it real. He wasn't just telling us the facts of this conversation, he was telling us what he remembers, even the things that 'were not important to tell the story'. He uses writing tactics, like putting his memories in a shoe box. This isn't the only time we hear the discussion of a sergeant smoking. We hear, "inhale, exhale" later on during a conversation. This is them making this story more of a poetic story. This is how I thought of it anyway, it reminded me I wasn't in a conversation with one of these soldiers, but that it is a story that he wrote of his memories. Sometimes I like hearing them sound like they are talking to you personally, but this was a nice change of pace. This is what they do. They go through everything while they are deployed then write these stories out, the way they are in their heads; he remembered watching his sergeant smoking.
This film constantly made me keep going back to How to Tell a True War Story. I was constantly comparing, even though, I knew these were a true war stories either way. I was just looking at clues that we have been given before. When I read How to Tell a True war Story, it was back-and-forth on how to tell. It was contradicting at some points, on purpose. I saw this a lot in the story when listening to them talk about what they waited for exactly. Some of them told us that they truly waited for war to happen because they expected it, it is what they were trained for. On the same hand, these are the same people who were thinking they didn't want it to happen at the same time. That the only thing in their head was 'don't die'.
I really enjoyed the part in this documentary where they are telling us to put ourselves in their shoes. It is miserable to live there, and they describe it awesomely! It is almost humorous, but it is all true, which takes a little bit of the humor out of it for us. This was right after they told us how they use humor to get through it all. They laugh about things to keep from getting scared.
All the soldiers in this are just trying to get their stories out. they are all honest stories, not for entertainment, and not for attention. They are not exaggerating, they don't need to exaggerate. They wrote these stories because war brought out the writers in them. Some did it because they wanted everyone to know about it since they wouldn't find out any other way. This was an awesome documentary. Very Real. 'True war stories'.
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