FTA

This is like those old CSO shows during world War II with Bob hope and the Andrews Sisters.

Trade Europe for Viet Nam and bring in Fonda, Sutherland, and Boyle and there's the diff.

While the social commentary between the acts was clearly against the war, no soldiers were catching heat for it. It was made clear that they deserved pity too. Despite Fonda's semi-traitorous politics, she never really was angry at the common men. It's the brass and the suits that catch it here.

And it's amusing seeing Donald Sutherland combine his 'Hawkeye' character from M*A*S*H and "Oddball" from Kelly's Heroes and throw in a dash of Ed Sullivan. He still sounds like he's got a mouth full of grits.

Rumors say that Peter Boyle's scenes were used against his will. But I'm not sure of the facts.

Hearts & Minds with humor. Worth a look...IF you can find it.

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rothermel010409.html FTA -- Now More Than Ever by Jay Rothermel

FTA (Dir. Francine Parker, 1972).

Preamble: "This film was made in association with the servicewomen and men stationed on the United States bases of the Pacific Rim, together with their friends whose lands they presently occupy." Accepting his Oscar for Best Actor, Sean Penn jokingly referred to the Academy as lovers of "commies and homos." It's a tribute to the low level of politics among our cultural workers today that Sean Penn would be surprised at acknowledgement of his performance. The Academy loves movies about exceptional heroes, whether they are overcoming physical disabilities, sports team segregation, the Holocaust, or the Roman Empire.

The entertainment industrial complex also loves it when its celebrities serve as a prophylactic for US humanitarian imperialism in countries like Sudan or Tibet. (Poor Rose McGowan, conversely, hasn't been heard or seen since expressing understanding for what motivated men and women in Ireland to join the IRA.) All of which brings us to the opposite end of the movie food chain, far from the heights of Oscardom: FTA, Francine Parker's documentary about the "Free the Army" tour. Washington and Wall Street long ago erased this movie. The miracle of globalized media today, however, means we can sit at home and watch it on DVD or its showing on that greener-than-green parrot cage called the Sundance Channel.

What strikes the viewer first about FTA is the humility, sense of proportion, and optimism the film has about events it depicts. We are a long way here from the old Michael Moore bazooka and the longeurs of Ken Burns, Inc.

There are many similarities between FTA and the great rock concert documentaries of the same period: only a few lines of narration for context, and then getting out of the way of the performances.

FTA the movie was long ago blacklisted from theaters, just as FTA the traveling political musical extravaganza was blacklisted from history. A key part of the "culture war" trumpeted by media and academic hacks of the Bill Bennett-David Horowitz-Rush Limbaugh variety (and which is itself part of a larger 30 year war against the gains of the labor, civil rights, women's, and anti-war movements) is the depiction of the those opposed to the Vietnam War as "stabbing our troops in the back." One tonic effect of FTA's DVD release and Sundance showing is to put the lie to that libel. As Washington's invasion and war against the people of Vietnam proceeded, one of the greatest concentrations of anti-war sentiment and activism was found among GIs themselves. The script for the FTA revue itself was drawn exclusively from material GIs published in their own anti-war newspapers.

FTA was the product of a flourishing anti-war culture. Today we see this culture boiled down to a History Channel "flower power" documentary, histories like Tom Brokaw's Boom, and the memoirs of Senators and ex-Senators like John Kerry and Bob Kerry. But Vietnam's war of independence at its height inspired militants around the world, from Che Guevara's guerillas to the 1968 strikers in France.

One of the great pleasures of FTA is the forthright energy of the performers and their audience. The GIs heard their own thoughts -- salty, sarcastic, and full of gallows humor and solidarity at the same time -- repeated back to them. The leaps of consciousness over just a few years as they rejected each rationale of the Washington war machine confirmed the anti-war movement's strategy of orienting to these "workers in uniform." The cast of the FTA revue is filled with gifted performers. They continued with their artistic careers after the U.S. anti-war tide receded. It is a pleasure to see them in their youth, energized by work that gave shape to the feelings of the immense majority. Between concerts they marched in solidarity with local activists protesting Washington's devastating "military base colonialism" in the Philippines, Okinawa, and Japan.

Today one of the movie FTA's great strengths is its potential as a recruiting tool. It is the perfect length to have classes, meetings, and potlucks built around it. The moral authority of the movie is without equal: completely ignoring the pundits and the bi-partisan Wall Street war party in Washington, it lets the anti-war GIs speak for themselves.

Jay Rothermel lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

unfortunately, in other reviews made about this film there is a lack of

understanding. The time and place of this movie are the two things that are of utmost importance to comprehend, only with the comforting feeling of ignorance can the point of this material be avoided. Being the residual of a post-Vietnam society that resides in the same state on this day of November 1st, 2004 as it did when this film was made, can we still be so blinded by the pure'ed peas of pride. I would hope, all attention deficits and outside influences aside that you would be capable of seeing this film with an open mind.

i applaud your effort. HL

I'm glad the docu refrains from lengthy preachments against the Vietnam war. Instead the narrative's a mix of anti-war songs, dance numbers and comedy sketches, but most importantly are the revelatory comments from soldiers themselves about personal feelings toward the army and life stateside. Many are on the humorous side, yet short in length. Nonetheless, their overall impact remains unmistakable.

Fonda and Sutherland both sing and comment, each serving more as continuity between sections than as major spokespeople. That mainly allows the focus to be where it should be: namely, on the servicemen and women of all races and their anti-war, anti-army feelings. Perhaps unexpectedly, there are no stagings in Vietnam itself, probably because of Defense Department restrictions. (After all, this is not Bob Hope.) Instead the show travels across the Pacific ending in Japan and lingering images of 1945's a-bomb blasts. Still, the overlapping message remains basically the same across the changing locales and service-personnel.

Anyway, whether you agree or not with the anti-war stance, the docu's well worth catching up with. And though 50-years have passed, the underlying feelings are as relevant now as they were then.

One of the guys who was there, shared this with me. I looked it up today because Donald Sutherland just passed away, but most importantly, I knew some of these Marines. I was once married to one of them. This film was and still is, a very important timepiece. It was a bit slow but I liked Donald Sutherland smile at parts. Imagine my surprise, when I heard a familiar voice! There was this Marine from Beaver Dam, KY. That I knew quite well. He was a character and he also hated this war. These guys were drafted into a war that they didn't believe in. One young man said, "it was jail or the military." I suppose that most people except that age group, those who served or in my case, knew some of the guys who got a speaking role.