Of Men and War

An American soldier under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at the Pathway Home explains how small he felt upon his return to the United States. It’s an experience shared by almost all the men in the therapy group. When they finally got back home from their tour of duty in Iraq, they were no longer the same men whom their wives had waved off. Almost all of them have horrific tales to tell, some about a friend lost, many about the deaths of innocent Iraqis. Over a period of years, the camera follows the group therapy and one-on-one sessions where they try to make sense of events that defy logic. Therein lies the problem. Why, for example, did that mother get her daughter to open the front door when the soldiers were already kicking it down? Slowly but surely, we see some of them recovering. The naiveté they display when talking about the ideas they had when they left for Iraq is terribly poignant. Laurent Bécue-Renard starts his film with a quote from Erich Maria Remarque, who wrote the anti-war novel following his experiences in the First World War: “What would our fathers do if we suddenly stood up and came before them and proffered our account?” Ultimately, these American soldiers’ testimonies likewise amount to a powerful protest.