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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

War and peace

SIR! NO SIR! (David Zeiger). 85 minutes. Opens Wednesday (July 5) at the Bloor. See Indie & Rep Film, page 113. Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN


Nearly 35 years after the fact, we still don’t know everything about American resistance to the war in Vietnam.

Credit David Zeiger for filling us in with this absorbing and emotionally powerful doc on the movement of U.S. soldiers and veterans to end the war.

We learn from these activists how they organized – mostly through newspapers published close to army bases all over the United States – so that by the end of the war fully 500,000 soldiers had deserted.

Along with army personnel who were jailed for organizing or for refusing to obey orders on the front lines, Jane Fonda describes her anti-war shows undertaken with, among others, Donald Sutherland , to entertain the troops. She doesn’t sound like she regrets her days as Hanoi Jane at all.

The talking heads are fascinating, especially when they explain why Veterans Against the War supported Lieutenant Calley, who was held responsible for the infamous My Lai Massacre. Why, they asked, should Calley be punished for doing exactly what the army had trained him to do?

Other real triumphs of Sir! No Sir! are its archival footage and a kick-ass electric-guitar-drenched psychedelic original score by Buddy Judge that take you right back to that time.

Somebody smuggle this thing to Iraq.

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