Yeah...yeah! In fact, what we need is a sixth service, one that just focuses on cleanup operations after the rest of the military beats the crap out of the organized opposition.
Posted on 06/10/2006 11:26:50 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Sir! No Sir! Just saying no
Release Date: 2006
Ebert Rating: ***
BY ROGER EBERT / Jun 9, 2006
Quick question: When Jane Fonda was on her "FTA" concert tour during the Vietnam era, who was in her audience? The quick answer from most people would probably be, "anti-war hippies, left-wingers and draft-dodgers." The correct answer would be: American troops on active duty, many of them in uniform.
"Sir! No Sir!" is a documentary that about an almost-forgotten fact of the Vietnam era: Anti-war sentiment among U.S. troops grew into a problem for the Pentagon. The film claims bombing was used toward the end of the war because the military leadership wondered, frankly, if some of their ground troops would obey orders to attack. It's also said there were a few Air Force B-52 crews that refused to bomb North Vietnam. And in San Diego, sailors on an aircraft carrier tried to promote a local vote on whether their ship should be allowed to sail for Vietnam. One of the disenchanted veterans, although he is never mentioned in the film, was John Kerry, who was first decorated for valor, and later became a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and testified before Congress.
After the turning point of the Tet offensive in 1968, troop morale ebbed lower, the war seemed lost, and a protest movement encompassed active duty troops, coffeehouses near bases in America, underground GI newspapers, and a modern "underground railway" that helped soldiers desert and move to Canada. According to Pentagon figures, there were some 500,000 desertions during the Vietnam years.
The film has been written and directed by David Zeiger, who worked in an anti-war coffee- house near Fort Hood, Texas. In a narration spoken by Troy Garity, the son of Fonda and Tom Hayden, his film says, "The memory has been changed." The GI anti-war movement has disappeared from common knowledge, and a famous factoid from the period claims returning wounded veterans were spit on by "hippies" as they landed at American airports. According to the film, that is an urban legend, publicized in the film "Rambo II: First Blood."
When we reviewed "Sir! No Sir!" on "Ebert & Roeper," we cited the film's questions about the spitting story. There is a book on the subject, The Spitting Image, by Jerry Lembcke, whose research failed to find a single documented instance of such an event occurring in real life. I received many e-mails, however, from those who claimed knowledge of such incidents. The story persists, and true or false is part of a general eagerness to blame our loss in Vietnam to domestic protesters, while ignoring the substantial anti-war sentiment among troops in the field.
Parallels with the war in Iraq are obvious. One big difference is that the Vietnam-era forces were largely supplied by the draft, while our Iraq troops are either career soldiers or National Guard troops, some of them on their second or third tours of duty. The Vietnam-era draft not only generated anti-war sentiment among those of draft age, but supplied the army with soldiers who did not go very cheerfully into uniform. The willingness of today's National Guardsmen to continue in combat is courageous and admirable, but cannot be expected to last indefinitely, and the political cost of returning to the draft system would be incalculable.
A group of recent documentaries has highlighted a conflict between information and "disinformation," that Orwellian term for attempts to rewrite history. The archetype of "Hanoi Jane" has been used to obscure the fact that Fonda appeared before about 60,000 GIs who apparently agreed with her. The Swift Boat Veterans incredibly tried to deny John Kerry's patriotism. The global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is being attacked by a TV ad campaign, underwritten by energy companies, which extols the benefits of CO2.
No doubt "Sir! No Sir!" will inspire impassioned rebuttals. No doubt it is not an impartial film, not with Fonda's son as its narrator. What cannot be denied is the newsreel footage of uniformed troops in anti-war protests, of Fonda's uniformed audiences at "FTA" concerts, of headlines citing Pentagon concern about troop morale, the "fragging" of officers, the breakdown of discipline, and the unwillingness of increasing numbers of soldiers to fight a war they had started to believe was wrong.
Cast & Credits
A documentary narrated by Troy Garity and featuring Edward Asner, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Terry Whitmore, Donald Duncan, Howard Levy, Oliver Hirsch, Susan Schnall, Randy Rowland, Louis Font, Dave Cline, Bill Short, Dave Blalock, Greg Payton, Darnell Summers, Michael Wong, Terry Whitmore, Joe Bangert, Richard Boyle, Jerry Lembcke, Terry Iverson, Tom Bernard and Keith Mather.
Balcony Releasing presents a documentary written and directed by David Zeiger. Running time: 85 minutes. No MPAA rating.
The MSM and Roger Ebert, lefty and notorious gay-friendly movie reviewer continue to hype anything anti-war or anti-military.
I will be skipping this pile of horse dung, so-called film.
What a wet dream. Any soldier who admired Jane Fonda was a traitor, just like that POS Kerry. they deserved to be lined up and shot.
The article is correct that American military morale declined dramatically towards the end of the war.
Among other things, who wants to be the last soldier to die in a lost war?
There was also a huge drug problem in the military during this period.
I remember that one of the big 3 abcnbccbs caught an army patrol, on film, in VietNam, near the end, refusing to go down a path. the MSM was calling it mutiny.
He's stopped reviewing movies and devolved into a mere huckster; and like so many other Libs lately, he is willfully squandering what little good will he had built up over the years.
I wonder how his sponsors will feel about it.
Are any of these troops at the Fonda gatherings like the 'troops' that John Kerry brought along on his anti-war whistle stops?
Ask Roger Fatbert why are enlistment levels surpassing expectations. I stopped reading his reviews. He was at U of Va
hosting a film series. I remeber him saying that european voters were much more sophisticated than americans. After that I avoided his reviews. It was at that time when Siskel was ill
and Michael Medeved appeared on Chicago radio... a breath of fresh air.
I found Michael Medeved's reviews to be more insightful and
agreeable.
this guy's supposed to be a film critic? yet he doesn't know that the line concerning civilians spitting on soldiers is to be found near the end of "First Blood" - the FIRST Rambo movie (the actual title of the second movie is "Rambo: First Blood PART TWO")?
As this guy doesn't even know the subject of his own field of specialty, why the hell should anyone heed his other assertions of "fact"?
For the record, the spitting-on-soldiers story was well established in my youth in the 1970's, to the point that I recall "sensitive" hippie types BRAGGING that they had DONE this.
"The Swift Boat Veterans incredibly tried to deny John Kerry's patriotism."
Ebert: liberal leftist.
Your honor, I rest my case.
Rog, your side won that war. Get over it.
"The Swift Boat Veterans incredibly tried to deny John Kerry's patriotism."
Typical Lefty misrepresentation. The SBV rightfully questioned his veracity about his own conduct, and his accusations against US troops. And there wasn't anything "incredible" in doing so.
Keep that Kerry propaganda were it belongs, in the dust bin of history.
"The last man to die for a mistake" is a classic Kerry post-vietnam quote. The Vietnam war was WON by 1968, Kerry and Fonda, with the collusion of foreign intelligence and communist spies, turned victory into defeat by convincing the US we couldn't win the war, that it was a mistake.
It wasn't a mistake to the estimated 2 million southeast Asians who died in communist purges after the US left.
That's not an untrue statement, though. And the long-term effects on recruitment are evident, as many people who would have signed up as only a Home Guard (without overseas deployment except following military attack by another nation) no longer have a place to enlist.
If we are going to be an active participant in overseas nation-building/interventionism, then we need a larger active-duty regular military, not the current alignment of National Guardsmen for offensive combat. Besides, the current regulations have limits on redeployment of Guardsmen, such that we are having to dig deeply into inactive reservists, like the 70-year-old sent to Afghanistan in 2004.
He gave the Gore movie 4 stars. Nuff said.
“Sir! No Sir!”
“Are you allowed to eat jelly doughnuts, Private Ebert?”
“Sir! No Sir!”
“And why not, Private Ebert?”
“Sir, because I’m too heavy, Sir.”
“Because you are a disgusting fatbody, Private Ebert!”
Not if Fatso has anything to say about it.
What BS. How do I know? Ebert wrote it..
Boy, there's three winners. I can't wait to see that film.
The liberals are being led around like cows to the slaughter house, and they are happy to oblige.
See my about page
All three of which bombed at the box office. But hey, its all about the critical acclaim, not the money..
Haveing worked with a number in country VN Vets from all walks of life. I never found one for jane fonda. So I would say NO!
It's just how Libs justify themselves. Twist reality to fit.
1 I’m never wrong
2 If I’m wrong see #1
Or
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Analyzed by Marshall Michel in his book The Eleven Days of Christmas, and proven not true. There were a few guys who went DNIF for questionable reasons, but they were fewer in number or percentage of aircrew that did so during the great bomber slaughter over Germany in 1943.
And in San Diego, sailors on an aircraft carrier tried to promote a local vote on whether their ship should be allowed to sail for Vietnam.
I was in San Diego for that: they were confused young men with some disciplinary action pending against them who got played for idiots by the local antiwar activists.
I heard a joke to the effect that Hollyweird, in its effort to completely alienate itself from Middle America, is making the movie "Brokeback Jarhead."
I've heard this kind of statement from some people on both the left and right. But it's not a widely held view -- thank goodness.
There are plenty of good reasons -- both political and military -- why the Army National Guard and other reserve forces will continue their current role.
That carried over through the 70's.
I think the situation was that they flew the same flight plan at the same time every night and the North Vietnamese were shooting down more and more planes. They objected to not having any flexibility. The pilots won and no missions were canceled... from what I have read.
Welcome Home!!
"I'd have to ask some of our folks that were there for clarification, but could it be that was because:
1) Drafted soldiers didn't want to be there?
2) The media was in their heyday in that they were able to provide losing scenarios continuously, with no counter?
3) The druggies prevalent in our society were drafted, thus carried their own problems with them as they deployed?
4) (Sorry) Jane Fonda was then considered hot?"
You are right on, throw in the military race riots and there is no denying the military was in much turmoil.
Having recently seen her in an early movie, Barefoot in the Park, I am forced to agree.
My wife is conservative, yet is more moderate than I.
She rented a musical some days ago called "Rent".
Disgusted she turned it off. In summary - AIDS, drugs, inter racial relationships, homosexual relationships, casual sex innuendoes and and and. She could not take it and just turned it off 2/3 of the way through. It was one giant liberal orgy of a musical. That’s the way the critic should have described it – “For the consummate liberal, this orgy of decadence is a true delight to watch.”
Add “Rent” to the list with “BrokeBack”, “Fahrenheit 911”, “TransAmerica” and other great Hollywood productions.
I would rather play a computer game than subject myself to this "trash" they pump out. The only movies I watch anymore tend to be with my daughter. Ice Age II was very good BTW. It's not even a deliberate boycott, but I don't waste my time or money on nonsense like Fahrenheit 911.
My older brother was in Vietnam at the time with the 101st Airborne. He told me that shortly after the enemy was crushed after Tet, he and thousands of other troops were stationed near the dmz waiting for the orders to invade the north that never came.
I quit taking Ebert seriously as a movie reviewer long before his leftist inclinations were revealed. He's given great reviews to so many god awful movies (that I unfortunately paid good money to see), I gave him the deep six many years ago.
Roger Ebert eats ----.
Ebert decided some years ago to join the political Hollyweird crowd.
Ebert was pushing that lunatic Gore in 2000. Like I'm going to pay any attention to ANYTHING he has to say?
"It wasn't a mistake to the estimated 2 million southeast Asians who died in communist purges after the US left."
The figure I heard for South Vietnamese murdered after the Communist takeover was about 300,000. Where do you get 2 million?
It isn't exactly like he has a lot left to lose:
"Roger Ebert to Have More Cancer Surgery
Thursday June 1 11:48 AM ET
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years, will undergo cancer surgery again, according to a published report.
In Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times, where Ebert has been the movie critic for nearly 40 years, columnist Robert Feder reported that Ebert will have surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland.
"It's not life threatening, and I expect to make a full recovery," the 63-year-old critic and host of the nationally syndicated movie review show, "Ebert & Roeper," told Feder. "I'll continue to function as a film critic during this time."
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Ebert has undergone cancer surgery three times before once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the next year.
But Feder reported that Ebert is not expected to require radiation treatment as he did when he underwent the previous procedures.
"This is known as a slow-growing and persistent cancer," Ebert said. "You live with it."
Ebert recently returned from the Cannes Film Festival in France. He said he plans to tape enough shows with Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper that the program will continue to air during his recovery.
Ebert has been a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, the same year he teamed up with Gene Siskel of the rival Chicago Tribune to launch their movie-review show. Siskel died in 1999."
"I don't have the slightest idea whether Oliver Stone knows who killed President John F. Kennedy. I have no opinion on the factual accuracy of his 1991 film ``JFK.'' I don't think that's the point."Indeed it's not. I am struck while reading this by the hypocrisy of the left that whines about "McCarthyism" because it allegedly unfairly accused people of disloyalty but blithely support decades of knowingly false accusations of treason and murder conspiracy in the JFK case.
Ever hear of a place called "Cambodia"? Well, it's in Southeast Asia. And a few people died there too, I hear.
Yeah...yeah! In fact, what we need is a sixth service, one that just focuses on cleanup operations after the rest of the military beats the crap out of the organized opposition.
"Boy, there's three winners. I can't wait to see that film."
No kidding, how did Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, and Sean Penn miss out on cameos in that one?
ROFLMAO! Every time I think of that movie I think of the lampooning they did of that crappy show in Team America, World Police--second time on this thread that movie relates, and I SWEAR I am not hijacking it! They did a faux-musical called "Lease," and sang this song right at the start of the movie (every bit as subtle as Rent):
Everyone has AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS!
Everyone has AIDS!
And so this is the end of our story
And everyone is dead from AIDS
It took from me my best friend
My only true pal
My only bright star (he died of AIDS)
Well I'm gonna march on Washington
Lead the fight and charge the brigades
There's a hero inside of all of us
I'll make them see everyone has AIDS
My father (AIDS!)
My sister (AIDS!)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS AIDS AIDS!)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
Everyone has AIDS!
My grandma and my dog 'Ol Blue (AIDS AIDS AIDS)
The pope has got it and so do you (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
We gotta break down these barricades, everyone has
AIDS!
Rent is a hugely popular Broadway show. A modern day rethinking of La Boheme. It's not surprising that there was a movie made from it.
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