War in the Head

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2010)

It's hard to imagine what it is like to wake up every morning knowing it could be your last. I saw a young man on 60 MInutes last night who has become the first recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in a great many years. He struck me as one of those incredibly thoughtful, self-sacrificial young people who have trouble saying it was I who did this. He considered himself a mediocre soldier. I could also see that this guy is damaged goods. He is going to carry some demons around for a long time from being in this horrible valley in Afghanistan, perhaps the deadliest location of the war. So when we see this movie that deals with Guadalcanal and the horrible situations these men find themselves facing, we have to realize that war is a cerebral as well as a physical event. That's why soldiers are dehumanized in basic training because if they really thought deeply about the killing of other humans, it would be a hard sell. As brave as the men in the movie are, we seldom get to hear their true thoughts. This is a really cerebral movie. Unfortunately, at times it does get pretty tepid. Yes, there is a lot of grass blowing and people pressed to the ground. Nonetheless, it gets at the deep horror of war. There are anti-war movies superior to this one, but it still holds up quite well.