I may never march in the infantry, shoot the artillery, fly o'er the enemy...
It's been a while since I saw a documentary in the theater - one of our screens usually has one, but lately they've been disappointing so I started avoiding them. Not so tonight. We have an exclusive engagement premiere of "Operation Homecoming" which is a doc about U.S. soldiers returning from wars.

It's not exactly about Iraq or Afghanistan (or Vietnam or Europe, for that matter). It's more about what it means to be a soldier and how wars affect people. The film is part of a larger project by the National Endowment for the Arts aimed at getting soldiers to write about their experiences in war. This may seem like another case of telling the Gulf War from the point of view of American soldiers, but it's much more interesting than that.

There are about 10 separate segments to the film - chapters if you will. Between the chapters are various talking heads. All of them are or have become writers and some have written books on World War II or Vietnam. Their words are interesting, but it's the chapters that make the film come alive. Each chapter is a cinematic interpretation of one soldier's writing. Most are short stories or reminiscences, but at least one is a poem.

The result is almost like several short films with a theme of war. One segment is animated and plays like a moving graphic novel. The animation is all made from sketches with an effect similar to "Waking Life" or "A Scanner Darkly." And like those movies, the animation has a way of heightening reality without making it seem trite. The story is of a soldier in a tank who has to go outside to get extra ammunition. While he's out there exposed to the bullets of enemies, he sees three men and kills them. Done on film or video, this would be something we've seen again and again but the sketches force us to think about it in a different way. This, as well as other segments of the documentary, does an excellent job of humanizing the soldiers and helping us understand a) why they would choose to become soldiers in a time when that seems like suicide and b) make us more sensitive to our own criticisms of what we often consider an unjust war.

All the participants are very articulate and different from the stereotypical image of a soldier. All have clearly gone through something traumatic and this is one way for them to deal with it. That isn't to say get over it, because one of the participants makes a point that you can never get over war, nor should you attempt to. There are some things we experience that we need to remember because to forget them would be like losing a very important part of ourselves. And like any life-changing event, it's almost impossible to share the experience with someone who wasn't there.

At some point, "Operation Homecoming" will be shown on PBS and it's definitely worth sitting down for the hour or so it will probably run. And if you happen to live in New York, come on by and see it at Film Forum. I'll get you passes or discounted tickets. It's only here for a few more days though, so hurry if you're coming.