The Oscar nominated documentary "Soldiers in Hiding" gives us a different, unusual yet harsh reality faced by Vietnam War veterans who
opted for a different life path after their return to the United States. Instead of the usual routes of committing violent acts to others or
themselves, or living in the streets, or even struggling to adjust to the civilian life with jobs and families, the veterans featured in this
piece opted to live secluded in the wilderness (all across America, but here it's mostly shown the state of Washington) where their survival skills in the nature and guerilla tactics are useful to provide a living and
they can avoid all possible human contact; a few of those soldiers managed to bring their families together, but most of them reject any possible
contact with another human being.
They carry lots of PTSD, suffering, and wounds from the battlefield and life at home can't never return to the reality they knew in
their final years of adolescence, and to avoid problematic and dangerous outcomes they simply walked away from everything they knew and try to
keep a sense of routine formed in the Vietnam. Those stories aren't like the fictional John Rambo acting against everything and everyone, but the sense of
being incomprehended and not understanding the world around them feels slightly close.
And to all the sadness and pain expressed by those men, one
can sense a certain hopeful glimpse as they stayed alive, survived decades living in forests, and it worked for them. They kept on going without
losing themselves completely, without causing trouble to anyone neither themselves, and unlike the veterans featured in "Vietnam Requiem" who all
end up jail for series of crimes, the major obstacle they face comes from loneliness, turbulent past memories and dealing with people, if they come
their way. In those particular cases, detachment was an act of salvation. It might not look helpful for many civilians, or even military, but it was
the way they could deal with themselves, find some balance within the chaos of their shattered minds and souls. There's glory and nobility in that
decision they made, and don't think for a second it was an easy way. It takes guts to leave a whole world of things and people behind.
Malcolm Clarke's film is powerful, memorable and haunting, but it also offers a unique view into the lives of those veterans, how they cope
with the environment around them, and there's even small moments of help and shared pain that two veterans way apart from each other communicate
through letters. And the question thrown at us goes in trying to figure which war and which battles were the heaviest to be dealt by those
combatants: the war abroad or the war at home; the one that all kinds of horrors are expected or the one where you simply can't cope with a reality
you once knew; the conflict of the body or the conflict of the mind? "Soldiers in Hiding" offer those insights and a lot more, and you won't be
seeing the Vietnam War or any other war in the same way. 10/10.
