"Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." Charles Colson (Nixon's counsel)
Go see it, if for no other reason than increasing the likelihood of a hold-over at your theatre. There were 6 other people at a 4:40 Sunday matinee in my Bloomington, IN theatre. As my wife put it (and surprised in me the same sentiment) "now I actually feel like voting for John Kerry." I was starting to come around more to being pro-Kerry than anti-Bush after the first debate, but this gave me an honest admiration for him as a leader.
Among other things, it's a good refresher in the unfolding of the Vietman conflict. What it did most for me, I think, was bring home Kerry's real accomplishments--as something he was able to pull off because of some real and rare gifts, and genuine strength of character. His Vietnam service and speaking-out are often presented as capsulizeed events and notable records of action. But what this movie documents really movingly, is how John Kerry not only did the standing up and speaking out, but
led a bunch of (visually kind of frightening) unruly, disheveled, and palpably angry and distraught veterans to a demonstration on the mall, quieting the flare-ups, and harnessed some potentially dangerous energy and passion into a moment that seems to have changed the direction of a nation's foreign policy. Perhaps the movie overplays Kerry's role, I don't know, but it sure made the "distant history" of these events seem far from irrelevant and eerily timely at moments.
There was also some extended footage of a young John O'Neill in action as PR stooge for the anti-VVAW vets. It was kind of chilling. Made me really wonder why we aren't seeing this footage on TV regularly.