Operation Homecoming

Operation Homecoming is a film that blends together a collection of writings from Iraq War veterans, set to pictures of the war or semi-animated shorts, with interviews of the writers as well as veteran/writers of other wars, including Tobias Wolff, Paul Fussell, and Tim O'Brien. It sprang from a NEA project that sought to use writing as a sort of therapy for returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I found it a pretty mixed bag. Three of the shorts were excellent. Colby Buzzell's Men in Black, a remix of his famous blog post about a firefight in Mosul, makes you feel the terror and adrenaline, followed by the letdown, of combat. Road Work by Army Staff Sergeant Jack Lewis is a crushing story of the death of an innocent Iraqi are a road checkpoint, where the Iraqi's father's grief is counterpointed by Lewis' own memory of the accidental death of his own child (an expanded version of what is in the film can be read here, and is definitely worth your time). Taking Chance by USMC LtCol Mike Strobl was a superb story of a Marine officer accompanying the body of LCpl Chance Phelps, killed in Iraq in 2005, home for burial. This story can be read here, and frankly it made me proud to be American. Dubois did their boy good.

The film emphasizes the pure savagery of war and its negative effects on both soldiers and civilians. There's not much positive to be found here. If you're a war supporter, you're going to dislike this film, and if you're against it you won't find much that you haven't likely read already. My feelings tend more towards the latter, but there's plenty of good stuff of this type you can already find online. It's not worth the trek to Film Forum to see.

You can listen to some of the stories that are condensed in the film here.