Where Soldiers Come From

Don't let the bizarrely low rating on IMDb dissuade you from watching this amazing documentary. One subject of the film compares the men going off to Afghanistan to the characters in 'The Deer Hunter', and it's an apt comparison. There's no torture, no Russian Roulette, but there is the story of a group of friends from a small town in America going off to fight in a war they don't really understand. And like The Deer Hunter, they come back with wounds not necessarily visible on the outside. This film isn't pro-war or anti-war, hell, in a lot of ways it's not even about war. It's about friendship, family and survival. In other words, it's about life. A must see.

It was a pleasure to watch the premiere of Where Soldiers Come From at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This film provides a very personal look at the lives of three soldiers from Michigan's Upper Peninsula before during and after their deployment to Afghanistan. That one of the soldiers, Dom, is a talented young artist is particularly fascinating and provocative. This film shows the human side of war that often gets lost among the flags and parades. This is a picture about the young men who go to war not the politics that sent them halfway around the war. It is a coming-of-age story about what war does to a man's body and soul. They return for war forever changed by what they have experienced.

The filmmaker, Heather Courtney, does a wonderful job of allowing the soldiers to tell their stories, present their view of the war they are fighting and tell the audience about their little corner of America that most of us have never visited. Since they are assigned to explosive ordinance disposal team which is searching out Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), this is in many ways a true to life version of the Hurt Locker. The film is compelling and powerful.

Most of the politicians who send soldiers to war received deferments when their numbers were called and the vast majority of them don't send their own children to fight. Maybe they should watch a film like this so that they can feel a bit of the pain of the kids we send to war. It would be a wonderful thing for more Americans to see this film and they will get a chance when it airs on PBS's POV in the near future. I hope that it gives a lot of Americans a chance to think about the real costs of war.