Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers

Bill Couturié's Academy Award-nominated "Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers" features readings of letters sent home by US troops from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. The letters get read by Val Kilmer, Blair Underwood, Tom Hulce, and others.

A particularly important line in one of the letters appears towards the end. It says something to the effect of "War has no winners, just survivors." Indeed, the Gulf War got seen as a resounding victory at the time but now looks more like it gave us a false sense of security. Some of the wars ended, but some merely evolved into other wars (the so-called War on Terrorism merely replaced the Cold War).

I guess that the documentary could've done a little better by going into what the wars were about, but I liked hearing the letters. Worth seeing.

A short documentary like this, covering the many different interventions and involvements of the United States forces during wars in the 20th century, makes us question not necessarily about the times young soldiers had lived, but mostly the spirit of combat, fear, terror, tragedy and how different situations, political/historical scenarios and wars have a certain uniqueness that doesn't change through nearly 100 years of letters written by soldiers.

We go from the WWI (American forces joined the conflict in 1917), move to WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars, and close with the Gulf War in the early 1990's.

Actors such as Val Kilmer, Tony Goldwyn, Blair Underwood, Tom Hulce, Bill Irwin, Eric Stoltz and others read many letters from soldiers of those combats, and we watch news and archive images from those, following a certain modus operandi: letter and conflicts, and then an important message from a president or a general claiming for the efforts of peace.

Different men and different times and experiences, but once inside the context of fire, shootings, bombs and attacks, the pressure of everything changes their essence of young men who feel as if living as older man, just waiting for death or trying to escape it, always with the intention of returning home safe and sound to their loved ones. And the shock and awe of everything is seeing that a written word in the early 1910's would sound similar as one written in the early 1990's. If love has a uniqueness through descriptions and certain feelings, so does the nature and horrors of war through the ages.

While technology and new weapons can allow that conflicts can end sooner (allegedly) or cause a mass destruction against the enemy, the feeling expressed in the letters narrated by the Hollywood actors is something universal, everlasting, with small variations of tone and descriptions.

Bill Couturie made a very expressive gathering of elements that makes us reflect about war and peace, the human condition through drastic and terrible scenarios, and the humanity that exists at war, that deep down those young men in uniform would never want to fight for older gentlemen, unless if extremely needed and urgent, and their youthful dreams of living in a world united in peace, as they're just discovering the world around them. Despite everything you see and hear in the documentary, the struggle for peace speaks higher all the way through the film. 8/10.