Body of War
On Sept. 13, 2001, 22-year-old Tomas Young joined the Army to defend his country.
On April 4, 2004, on his first mission in Iraq, Young was riding in an unarmored Humvee in Sadr City when he was shot just above his left collarbone. The bullet severed his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
In August 2005, on his honeymoon, Young joined Cindy Sheehan in her anti-war protest near President Bush’s ranch in Texas, doing interviews with the media and speaking out against the war.
“Body of War,” a powerful, wrenching documentary from former talk-show host Phil Donahue and Austin, Texas, filmmaker Ellen Spiro, tells Young’s story.
Opening in his hometown of Kansas City as he plans his wedding with his then-fiancee, Brie, the film follows him to Texas and Washington, D.C., watching as he struggles to recover and learns to live in a wheelchair, marches in protests against the war and talks to activists, fellow veterans and politicians.
That story is alternately heartbreaking and inspiring and never less than brutally honest.
We see Young and Brie on the computer, trying to find methods to deal with erectile dysfunction and inadvertent bowel movements and watch him struggle to put on his jeans in the morning.
But we also see a brave 25-year-old veteran speaking out against the war, doing what he can to stop the conflict and save others from having to go through what he experienced or, worse yet, never come home again.
In fact, one of the most moving scenes in “Body of War” comes when Young meets some Gold Star mothers at a Washington, D.C., march. The women reach out to touch and kiss him, holding his hand while they talk.
For those grief-stricken mothers, Young is a substitute son, one who made it home alive, albeit severely wounded, his mother Cathy Smith says in the film.
Interspersed throughout the film are clips assembled by Donahue of the 2002 congressional debate on the authorization of the war in Iraq. While superfluous to Young’s story, the brief snippets of speeches capture the repetitive sales lines of pro-war forces, with senators and representatives aping Bush’s lines justifying the invasion.
Into that litany of comparisons of Saddam Hussein with Hitler and since discredited claims about weapons of mass destruction and ties with terrorists comes the clarion call of Sen. Robert Byrd (D. W.Va.) who, along with 22 others, voted against the war.
The parallel of Young’s life and the congressional debate come together in the film’s conclusion. But by then it has made its point about the rush to war and the callousness of politicians sending other peoples’ children halfway around the world to die.
More moving and ultimately more lasting is Young’s story, which is reminiscent of Ron Kovic, the paralyzed Vietnam vet whose story was told in the book and movie “Born on the Fourth of July.”
Young, who met Donahue while he was in Walter Reed Hospital in the weeks after he was wounded, let the cameras follow him for a reason.
“Everybody enlists in the military with the full knowledge that they might die in combat,” Young says in a question-and-answer interview in the movie’s press kit. “But nobody joins the military imagining they will end up paralyzed in a wheelchair. I hope this film makes people think long and hard before they agree to sign that enlistment contract. ‘Body of War’ will provide more accurate information about the reality of war for them to consider, … Honestly, I want ‘Body of War’ to be a tool for counter-recruitment.”
Unquestionably, it does that. But it also is a powerful portrait of a young man and a family devastated by the war that deserves to be widely seen by both those who are for the war and those who are calling to bring the troops home.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
On April 4, 2004, on his first mission in Iraq, Young was riding in an unarmored Humvee in Sadr City when he was shot just above his left collarbone. The bullet severed his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
In August 2005, on his honeymoon, Young joined Cindy Sheehan in her anti-war protest near President Bush’s ranch in Texas, doing interviews with the media and speaking out against the war.
“Body of War,” a powerful, wrenching documentary from former talk-show host Phil Donahue and Austin, Texas, filmmaker Ellen Spiro, tells Young’s story.
Opening in his hometown of Kansas City as he plans his wedding with his then-fiancee, Brie, the film follows him to Texas and Washington, D.C., watching as he struggles to recover and learns to live in a wheelchair, marches in protests against the war and talks to activists, fellow veterans and politicians.
That story is alternately heartbreaking and inspiring and never less than brutally honest.
We see Young and Brie on the computer, trying to find methods to deal with erectile dysfunction and inadvertent bowel movements and watch him struggle to put on his jeans in the morning.
But we also see a brave 25-year-old veteran speaking out against the war, doing what he can to stop the conflict and save others from having to go through what he experienced or, worse yet, never come home again.
In fact, one of the most moving scenes in “Body of War” comes when Young meets some Gold Star mothers at a Washington, D.C., march. The women reach out to touch and kiss him, holding his hand while they talk.
For those grief-stricken mothers, Young is a substitute son, one who made it home alive, albeit severely wounded, his mother Cathy Smith says in the film.
Interspersed throughout the film are clips assembled by Donahue of the 2002 congressional debate on the authorization of the war in Iraq. While superfluous to Young’s story, the brief snippets of speeches capture the repetitive sales lines of pro-war forces, with senators and representatives aping Bush’s lines justifying the invasion.
Into that litany of comparisons of Saddam Hussein with Hitler and since discredited claims about weapons of mass destruction and ties with terrorists comes the clarion call of Sen. Robert Byrd (D. W.Va.) who, along with 22 others, voted against the war.
The parallel of Young’s life and the congressional debate come together in the film’s conclusion. But by then it has made its point about the rush to war and the callousness of politicians sending other peoples’ children halfway around the world to die.
More moving and ultimately more lasting is Young’s story, which is reminiscent of Ron Kovic, the paralyzed Vietnam vet whose story was told in the book and movie “Born on the Fourth of July.”
Young, who met Donahue while he was in Walter Reed Hospital in the weeks after he was wounded, let the cameras follow him for a reason.
“Everybody enlists in the military with the full knowledge that they might die in combat,” Young says in a question-and-answer interview in the movie’s press kit. “But nobody joins the military imagining they will end up paralyzed in a wheelchair. I hope this film makes people think long and hard before they agree to sign that enlistment contract. ‘Body of War’ will provide more accurate information about the reality of war for them to consider, … Honestly, I want ‘Body of War’ to be a tool for counter-recruitment.”
Unquestionably, it does that. But it also is a powerful portrait of a young man and a family devastated by the war that deserves to be widely seen by both those who are for the war and those who are calling to bring the troops home.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
Copyright © 2002-2008 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.