Reporter's Notebook

Troops at the movies

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In all honesty, an informal survey of soldiers and airmen waiting to get autographs (see previous entry) didn’t produce much interest in this weekend’s film festival. But perhaps that’s because the troops don’t have much faith in the film world to accurately portray today’s wars and their consequences.

“I really haven’t seen a new movie that really projects what’s going on over there right now,” said Sgt. Christopher Burrell. “There’s nothing really that portrays what things are.”

Burrell and three fellow soldiers agreed that films that have the benefit of distance in time do a better job of showing the public what the military goes through at war. “Band of Brothers,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “We Were Soldiers” were the favorites of this small crowd.

So maybe it’s just too soon. Indeed, few movies about the current conflicts have garnered much in the way of box-office revenues.
“Some things they might show in a film that some of us might not want to see, things that kinda bring back memories,” Burrell said. “But it would be good just to educate, a lot of people don’t know what’s going on over there.”