Viewing this awesome movie, you get a sense of the incredible courage of John Kerry and the Vietnam Vets Against the War. The movie conveys the idealism and patriotism of the time (expressed by John Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you... ask what you can do for your country!"). It follows the soldiers as they go to war to defend freedom. They pay a very high price, many losing their lives (~60,000) and many more losing limbs or suffering wounds. We see their shock they had come as heroes to give people freedom but instead are confronted with the great suffering and devastation we were inflicting on the Vietnamese people. They tell their stories, how they wished they could have come home with their medals for valor and told everyone they got those medals bringing freedom to the Vietnamese. But then they would have watched more young men be drafted to go gives their lives, their limbs and their innocence to go kill Vietnamese villagers. They couldn't just let the suffering on both sides go on and on. So they spoke up. It took immense courage to say 'We as a nation made a mistake'. They said it graphically, in ways that were painful to them, but the pain awakened the conscience of America. This movie shows us how their courage to speak an unpopular truth turned the tide so we could bring the troops home.
Review of Going Upriver
