The Ground Truth (2006)

Grade: Overall: C. Iraq footage: B

An interesting documentary with a clear anti-war slant. It covers recruitment, deployment, and coming home. The recruitment was slightly interesting (though boot camp has been done better in other, deeper docs). The Iraq section had some amazing video that I hadn’t seen before. A lot of frontline military imagery, but it’s presented without context. Once they get to the coming home part, I lost interest.

Starring: Robert Acosta, Kelly Dougherty Director: Patricia Foulkrod

Plot Synopsis: The Ground Truth stunned filmgoers at the 2006 Sundance and Nantucket Film Festivals. Hailed as “powerful” and “quietly unflinching,” Patricia Foulkrod’s searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir audiences. The filmmaker’s subjects are patriotic young Americans – ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service in Iraq – as they experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home – with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all – the truth.