Product Details

• Actors: Herold Noel, Robert Acosta, Sean Huze, Kelly Dougherty, Patricia Foulkrod
• Directors: Patricia Foulkrod
• Writers: Patricia Foulkrod
• Producers: Andrew Mysko, Carl Linderum, Dal LaMagna, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Faiz Kayyem
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: September 26, 2006
• Run Time: 72 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000HA4WSY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,408 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Ground Truth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Shocking and heartbreaking, The Ground Truth is an Iraq war documentary that is truly essential viewing. A story of the U.S. battle against an often-phantom insurgency, told from the perspective of ordinary Americans who found themselves participating in a daily slaughter of innocent Iraqi civilians, The Ground Truth is the view kept off American televisions since 2003. The bombings, shootings, scenes of mistreatment of civilians, and countless, bloodied bodies of children, women, and unarmed men specifically targeted by U.S. troops, should rattle anyone with eyes to see. But the film’s many interviews with veterans, in which they describe an American war machine that chews up young people and abandons them to their physical and psychological wounds, are also stunning in their emotional clarity and intensity. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Hear and witness our soldiers in this penetrating film. The shocking Iraq War ground conflict is only a prelude to the even more challenging battles these reluctant heroes face upon their return home. Directed by: Patricia Foulkrod

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and disturbing, January 18, 2007

By 

Alastair Farrugia (Malta, EU) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ground Truth (DVD)

This documentary shows several Iraq war veterans who are wounded or traumatised, and the relatives of some who died. These are mostly veterans and relatives who are disturbed by what they saw and did, or simply by the lack of treatment that they themselves received.

Some are motivated by opposition to the war, but not all, and the documentary focuses almost completely on the soldiers' experiences, not on politics.

Of course, there are many vets who support the war, but over 1,000 active-duty members of the US military have signed an Appeal for Redress of Grievances that calls for "the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq".

I had read about much of this elsewhere, so it was not such a surprise for me, but I still found the documentary moving.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very fairly presented film in spite of it's anti-war message., October 8, 2006

By 

K. Harriger "K.R. Harriger" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ground Truth (DVD)

In the opening scenes of Patricia Foulkrod's powerful documentary about our questionable military venture in Iraq and its effect on the psyches of the soldiers who fight in it, we're introduced to a number of young soldiers who speak candidly and powerfully about the motivations that led them to join the military. As their stories unfold, we hear their surprised reactions to boot camp and combat training as they were taught to dehumanize their enemy, to "kill hadjis and ragheads." Each soldier describes in tight, careful detail their transformation from idealistic civilian to highly-trained killing machine. One soldier states quite bluntly and without sentiment how he watched his own resistance to killing grow weaker and finally fade away as the indoctrination took place. Even more chilling is his later description of looking forward to taking his first human life. "I'd been trained for it," he said, "and I wanted to do it."

For most of the soldiers in this movie, their turning points and epiphanies arrive in the shocking moments when their worldview is shattered, when the solid black line between right and wrong suddenly turns to muddy, indistinct gray. In nearly every story, we hear of their complicity in the deaths of innocent men, women and children, people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. One soldier describes having an old woman in the sights of his rifle and being forced to make a split-second decision as she approached an armored US military vehicle. After firing two rounds himself, he watched in horror as the occupants of the armored vehicle opened fire as well, tearing her to pieces. As she fell to the ground, the soldier saw the white flag in her hand. He tells us that he threw his gun to the ground with tears in his eyes. As another soldier notes, "It's one thing to replace your worldview with a new one, but another thing entirely to have your worldview shattered and have nothing to replace it with."

What I found so amazing about this movie was the lack of obvious editorializing. It's a spare, lean movie without obtrusive direction. The soldiers simply tell their powerful stories to the camera. There are virtually no distractions or breaks save for a few brief "intermissions" that feature photo montages overlaid with music, and then it's right back to the soldiers. I've read other reviews that complain about the one-sidedness of the film, but what documentary isn't? That's what documentaries do... they present a biased (yet hopefully intelligent) point of view. They're made with bias and the hope that viewers come to embrace, or at least take into account, the point of view presented by the film.

Any good war documentary is made with a clear agenda, and this film's purpose is to show the madness of a war that lacks a clear objective, a notion that seems to have filtered down to the soldiers as well. One soldiers states that most of the soldiers he speaks with have no clear idea of the war's stated mission. "Something to do with 9/11" is a common response. Without a clear stated goal, the soldiers adopt the only one that makes any sense to them... kill or be killed. Kill so that you can eventually go home to the ones you love. Kill because if you don't, you're not a good soldier. It's little wonder that they return home with little or no idea how to readjust to civilian life. The Bush administration pitches the conflict in Iraq as part of the larger war on terror, yet the soldiers interviewed tend to see themselves as participants in an escalating body of terror rather than defenders of freedom.

And yet one of the most powerful things about this film is personal passion of the soldiers themselves. Even before we hear each soldier's entire story, we realize that they aren't a bunch of whiners. They are people we feel we can trust. Each was a patriotic young person who stepped forward to do his or her duty. Most went to boot camp with a sense of purpose and pride, and returned home disillusioned with what they learned. In the end, each made a very personal decision how to deal with what they discovered, a decision to either suck it up and put a cap on it, hoping it wouldn't blow, or confront it and be willing to speak the truth, no matter the consequences. The Ground Truth is the story of soldiers coming to terms with the reality of a misguided war, and dealing with their discovery with grace and courage.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Consider seeing it, January 4, 2007

By 

Grelber37 (Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ground Truth (DVD)

The Ground Truth is worth watching. It provides much footage and commentary rarely encountered in other media. Rarely broadcast--for whatever reason. Certainly, the film's discussion touches both the mind and heart. And, it could be hardly more important. Many Americans have been awaiting the missing piece of the truth that this film provides.
I have one negative criticism of The Ground Truth. Responsibly, one must provide this "Spoiler." Most veterans interviewed are with Veterans Against the War; however, the film-makers provide this ethical information only in the denouement. Furthermore, one interviewed veteran pursues a Hollywood career. Perhaps, this document-ary contains biased hidden truths--perhaps not.
Perhaps appropriately, one could compare this documentary's legitimacy to that of Fahrenheit 9/11. The text provides a goldmine of hidden realities/truths, but it functions also as essayistic propaganda. Purchase this DVD if you navigate its mixed composition willingly. Otherwise, Gunner Palace provides a less-biased commentary. But, that documentary provides often information that would benefit from accompanying commentary--such as The Ground Truth provides.