Today, at San Francisco's Frameline film festival, I saw a screening of "Semper Fi: One Marine's Story" which airs on Showtime this Monday, 6/25. It's worth watching for a number of reasons.
It's a documentary on Jeff Key, a gay Alabaman who joined the Marines during the Clinton years, who was sent to Iraq near the start of the Iraq War.
While the film also makes a strong statement against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," it is especially worth watching for the compelling case it makes against the Iraq War.
The film chronicles Key's conservative Christian upbringing, in small-town Alabama, and his sense of patriotism and idealism in joining the Marines.
With footage of Key's time in Iraq, Key describes the evolution of his thinking from blind patriotism, to early doubts, to war critic.
Most Americans are with Key in first accepting, but now questioning the reasoning for the war and the unending occupation. The film makes strong argument against the war from perspective of a Marine who fought there.