Customer Reviews

FTA

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3 star:		(1)
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This is exactly the corrective to the view out there that the anti-war movement and the army were somehow different during the Vietnam era. The army, like US society, was split. To see the number of soldiers who attended these shows, and their laughter at the skits that mock the idiocy of their commanding officers, is to see that the movement against the war was inside and outside the army. Is the content of the skits hilarious or inventive? Not particularly. But I would rather see this concrete evidence of solidarity with the soldiers from the anti-war movement than Bob Hope's silly jingoistic USO shows any day. The "F" in the title, by the way, stands not for "Free" the Army, but for a rather more forceful verb.

The film also shows, incidentally, the not insignificant sexism in the subsequent vilification of Fonda from the right. Why was there never the same level of vilification (which I would also have disagreed with) of Sutherland? Sexism.

If you are interested in completing your view of the war and of the movement against it, this is a good place to go. Also useful: The American War (book) For more on the Tet Offensive and its impact, see Tet: The Turning Point in the Vietnam War, by Don Oberdorfer, plus the collection of essays in Vietnam and America: The Most Comprehensive Documented History of the Vietnam War, edited by Marvin Gettleman, Jane Franklin, Marilyn Young and H. Bruce Franklin.

Gerald Nicosia's Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement is a history based on hundreds of interviews with men who fought in Vietnam and then came home to be active in the antiwar movement. The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam by Tom Wells is a comprehensive history of the antiwar movement, from its earliest days to the end of the war in 1975.

For an excellent history that focuses specifically on the GI rebellion during the war, read David Cortright's Soldiers in Revolt, republished by Haymarket Books.

I'm thrilled this is out FINALLY, it's an interesting movie, certainly the original demonstration wouldn't have gone so smoothly had Sutherland and Fonda not been involved, but as far as entertainment value, it's forced and mixed to say the least. Maybe if Abbie Hoffman, Lenny Bruce or the Smothers Brothers Variety writers had been involved at this point, it would have been a wittier, more clever show. As it stands, it has the subtlety of an axe through a forehead. Since a similar high profile show with "stars" wasn't done to protest our last ten years of administration, I think FTA shows how much more guts people had then to fight for something they believed in, without fear of unpopularity or jail time.

This was a typical anti-vietnam war movie with Jane Fonda. I was curious as to its anti 1970's content. Watched the whole thing but to me it is not worth sharing with anyone.

Vietnam Era Veteran. Was unaware that this movie was ever made. I was a bit busy, at the time. Knew what I was getting, when I purchased the movie, although I wasn't aware that Donald Southerland shared the same views.
Political views were quite evident, but I was fighting for her right to say what she was saying, even though I might not have agreed with it. Some of it was funny to watch, but would not want to sit down and take the message seriously.