This short won the Academy Award for Documentary Short. There will be spoilers ahead:
This short consists of interviews with five of the soldiers involved in the My Lai massacre. Between the very matter of fact recitation of events, the relaxed nature of the interviews and the subject matter involved, this is a very disturbing and unsettling short, even more than 40 years after it was released.
A couple of the interviewees clearly feel what happened was wrong and should never have happened, but they were following the orders of superiors and responding to their training. One of them indicates receiving veiled threats to his own safety from a superior.
One of the five makes a few attempts to kind of, sort of, explain if not justify what was done. His replies are measured and considerably more guarded than those of the other four.
The most disturbing thing for me is the fact that the five discuss a mass murder of old men, women and children in the same way people discuss the weather or last night's baseball game. You don't really see much in the way of remorse.
This short is well worth tracking down and is well worth watching. Most highly recommended.
This short consists of interviews with five of the soldiers involved in the My Lai massacre. Between the very matter of fact recitation of events, the relaxed nature of the interviews and the subject matter involved, this is a very disturbing and unsettling short, even more than 40 years after it was released.
A couple of the interviewees clearly feel what happened was wrong and should never have happened, but they were following the orders of superiors and responding to their training. One of them indicates receiving veiled threats to his own safety from a superior.
One of the five makes a few attempts to kind of, sort of, explain if not justify what was done. His replies are measured and considerably more guarded than those of the other four.
The most disturbing thing for me is the fact that the five discuss a mass murder of old men, women and children in the same way people discuss the weather or last night's baseball game. You don't really see much in the way of remorse.
This short is well worth tracking down and is well worth watching. Most highly recommended.