Winter Soldier (1972)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

For three days in 1971, former US soldiers who were in Vietnam testify in Detroit about their war experiences...

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Testimony | Atrocity | Vietnam | Interview

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Rusty Sachs	...	Himself
Joe Bangert	...	Himself
Scott Shimabukuro	...	Himself
Kenneth Campbell	...	Himself
Scott Camil	...	Himself
John Kerry	...	Himself
Steve Pitkin	...	Himself
Jonathan Birch	...	Himself
Charles Stevens	...	Himself
Fred Nienke	...	Himself
David Bishop	...	Himself
Nathan Hale	...	Himself
Michael Hunter	...	Himself
Murphy Lloyd	...	Himself
Carl Rippberger	...	Himself
Evan Haney	...	Himself
Robert Clark	...	Himself
Gordon Stewart	...	Himself
Curtis Windgrodsky	...	Himself
Gary Keyes	...	Himself
Allan Akers	...	Himself
William Hatton	...	Himself
Joseph Galbally	...	Himself
Edmund Murphy	...	Himself
James Duffy	...	Himself
Scott Moore	...	Himself
Mark Lenix	...	Himself
Thomas Heidtman	...	Himself
Dennis Caldwell	...	Himself
James Henry	...	Himself

Produced by
Fred Aronow	....	producer
Nancy Baker	....	producer
Rhetta Barron	....	producer
Robert Fiore	....	producer
David Gilles	....	producer
David Grubin	....	producer
Jeff Holstein	....	producer
Barbara Jarvis	....	producer
Algis Kaupas	....	producer
Barbara Kopple	....	producer
Michael Lesser	....	producer
Nancy Miller	....	producer
Lee Osborne	....	producer
Lucy Massie Phenix	....	producer
Roger Phenix	....	producer
Benay Rubinstein	....	producer
Michaël Weill	....	producer (as Michael Weil)

Cinematography by
Fred Aronow
Robert Fiore
David Gillis
David Grubin
Jeff Holstein
Michael Lesser

Film Editing by
Nancy Baker
Rhetta Barron
Barbara Jarvis
Barbara Kopple
Lucy Massie Phenix
Benay Rubinstein
Michaël Weill		(as Michael Weill)

Sound Department
Algis Kaupas	....	sound mixer
Barbara Kopple	....	sound mixer
Nancy Miller	....	sound mixer
Lee Osborne	....	sound mixer
Roger Phenix	....	sound mixer

Production Companies

• Winterfilm Collective
• Vietnam Veterans Against the War
• Winterfilm Inc.

Distributors

• Milliarium Zero (2005) (worldwide) (all media)
• Oscilloscope Pictures (2010) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA | USA:Not Rated | UK:X

Company:

Winterfilm Collective

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006)

Historic first public testimony on gratuitous violence perpetrated by US troops and mercenaries in Vietnam

This film is a documentary shot at a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit over 3 days, in February, 1971, when 125 Vietnam military veterans gathered to offer personal testimony about atrocities and gratuitous violence they had witnessed or participated in during military service in Vietnam, i.e., violent acts by U.S. servicemen and U.S.-paid civilian mercenaries during the Vietnam conflict. The gathering was called the "Winter Soldier Investigation" and was the first such public testimony ever to have occurred in connection with the Vietnam war.

As one critic noted at the time, the film is more a document than a documentary. Technically it is dull: for the most part a single stationary camera records one speaker after another, C-SPAN style. But the stories here are told with chilling detail and emotion, or, equally moving, lack of emotion, after the fashion of many former combatants who suffer from PTSD and avoid re-experiencing the overwhelming feelings that their trauma mobilized originally, through suppression or dissociation from awareness. Among many others, there is a brief scene depicting a young John Kerry at the meeting.

The film was later shown at a Congressional hearing in 1972. It has never received wide distribution in the ensuing decades. Yet there is obvious resonance of the stories told here with concerns today about state-sponsored torture (Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib) and gratuitous killing and wounding of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The directing group (the "collective") was made up of 18 young documentarists based in New York City, including Barbara Kopple. This was a co-production of the Winter Film Collective and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. My ratings: cinema values: 5/10 (C); significance of content: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 11/15/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.