Have you seen this movie? I haven't. But many of our veterans have. And if you come to the VRC sometime, you'll hear that it opened up old wounds and brought back memories they want to forget. You'll also hear that as much as the movie brought back bad memories, our vets were more hurt and upset by comments and jokes from other movie goers about the value of this war and how worthless it was.
"Doesn't it mean something to people that I was willing to give my life, even for this worthless war, so that they don't have to?"
So if you are planning to watch the movie, will you keep in mind that there may be servicemen and women in the movie theater? And that whatever your opinion is about the war, or the military or the politics about the war, you should remember that there might be someone in the movie theater who did live through that experience, did see his/her buddy blown up to shreds, who still continues to live with survivor's guilt and a multitude of physical and emotional injuries.
If you have watched the movie, or want to watch the movie, may I invite you to the VRC at Foothill to talk to a vet about their time in the military? Listen to their experience and perspective on what it was like out there? Or perhaps start a conversation with a veteran you meet about life after combat? If you need some help, like I did, here's a good video to help you out. Thank you.
2 comments:
Thank you Teresa. I did see the movie, and I have been following the dialogue and discourse in the press. I did stop and think, how must our veterans feel? Not because people argue against the war, or even decry the violence and the role of snipers, but because so many people seemed to dehumanize the soldiers in their discussions. I am glad to know that you and your staff are providing a safe environment for our veterans to share. And I will stop by next week!
I have tried to respond to this post ever since I first read it, but I am conflicted. I haven’t seen American Sniper and had no plans to see it until now. How can I, in good conscience, thank soldiers for the service they did when I believe that the government lied to the nation and these soldiers to get us into war? Granted, I do not want to make the transition for veterans back to civilian life any more difficult than it is for them. This I must keep in mind thanks to this blog entry. But I think to myself that I could have been one of the movie-goers at the movie theater who made anti-war comments that the veteran might have heard. What do I do with these feelings against the war?
Every quarter I show a video made at The Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center, which examines the lives of soldiers with brain injuries. [http://www.kabacam.com/?p=418] I show the film for two reasons: on the one hand, in teaching reported speech, I haven’t found a better way to practice it than by having students hear the wounded soldiers for themselves and “reporting” on what they heard. (Direct speech: Claudia said, “I wanted to pay back the country for letting me and my family come to the U.S.” Reported speech: Claudia said that she had wanted to pay back the country for letting her and her family come to the U.S.)
The other reason for showing the video is that I want my students to hear what these soldiers say about their experiences, and I want them to remember it. Every time I see the film, I am angered by the physical condition the war has left these soldiers in. Even though I would never tell a veteran this, I think that this unnecessary war has wasted their lives. When I show the video, I do not express my feelings about the war. I take the stand that the reporter in the video takes: “This story is not about politics, about how we got to Iraq or about how we’ll get out. It is about the men and women who went, and their struggle to come home.”
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