This is actually two documentaries (i.e. two distinct subject matters) - the first being the story of the father and son journalists (and documentary makers) Mike and Carlos Boettcher, the second being the story of the fighting men on the ground in Afghanistan.
This could have been a truly great documentary if 3 things were done differently:
1. The first half of the movie, about Mike and Carlos Boettcher, was removed from the film, and that time was instead used to introduce us in more detail to the fighting men who would become the subjects of the second half of the documentary (which was definitely where the heart and soul of this film is found).
2. Mike Boettcher had not tried to use the film as a vehicle to justify, and in the process, completely over-hype the importance and role of journalists in war. Journalists play a vital role, but in this film the importance of that role was overblown.
As a father I also really struggled to accept all the 'this is how I redeem my lack of fatherly attention to my family over the years' rhetoric - not only did it lack authenticity, but taking your son to work with you for a couple of weeks is not really how one genuinely makes up for a self-professed and deliberate absence in the life of your wife and child.
3. Mike Boettcher had not inserted himself into this movie so much.
The real story of this documentary is found in the second half of the movie, but Mike Boettcher keeps inserting himself into the powerful narrative the footage is telling in really inappropriate ways - like the continual talking head shots of himself explaining how the fighting was effecting him, and often in a tone that felt really forced and possibly even contrived.
All we really needed from Mike Boettcher was for him to shoot the footage, weave it together into a coherent narrative, and then narrate the story of the fighting men - rather than to keep telling us about himself over and over again.
It's a real shame, because he definitely shot some really amazing footage here, and there is a powerful and very moving story to be told about the courage of these fighting men, and the truly ugly awfulness of futile wars.
If you can hang around for the second half, and you can get past the weaknesses, there is a really powerful story found in the second half of this movie - which would have been made great if Mike Boettcher had removed his own story from this documentary and instead devoted that time to telling more of the story of the fighting men we journey with in the second half of this movie.
This could have been a truly great documentary if 3 things were done differently:
1. The first half of the movie, about Mike and Carlos Boettcher, was removed from the film, and that time was instead used to introduce us in more detail to the fighting men who would become the subjects of the second half of the documentary (which was definitely where the heart and soul of this film is found).
2. Mike Boettcher had not tried to use the film as a vehicle to justify, and in the process, completely over-hype the importance and role of journalists in war. Journalists play a vital role, but in this film the importance of that role was overblown.
As a father I also really struggled to accept all the 'this is how I redeem my lack of fatherly attention to my family over the years' rhetoric - not only did it lack authenticity, but taking your son to work with you for a couple of weeks is not really how one genuinely makes up for a self-professed and deliberate absence in the life of your wife and child.
3. Mike Boettcher had not inserted himself into this movie so much.
The real story of this documentary is found in the second half of the movie, but Mike Boettcher keeps inserting himself into the powerful narrative the footage is telling in really inappropriate ways - like the continual talking head shots of himself explaining how the fighting was effecting him, and often in a tone that felt really forced and possibly even contrived.
All we really needed from Mike Boettcher was for him to shoot the footage, weave it together into a coherent narrative, and then narrate the story of the fighting men - rather than to keep telling us about himself over and over again.
It's a real shame, because he definitely shot some really amazing footage here, and there is a powerful and very moving story to be told about the courage of these fighting men, and the truly ugly awfulness of futile wars.
If you can hang around for the second half, and you can get past the weaknesses, there is a really powerful story found in the second half of this movie - which would have been made great if Mike Boettcher had removed his own story from this documentary and instead devoted that time to telling more of the story of the fighting men we journey with in the second half of this movie.