We’ve seen fictional accounts of the toll the war in Iraq is taking on America’s military. We’ve heard the mix of pride and pain the troops feel after seeing action. From FX’s “Over There” to CMT’s “American Soldier” (running Saturday nights), we’ve followed battalions through tours of duty and seen boys become men.
Now Tom Brokaw offers the nonfictional equivalent, condensed to one hour and all the more moving for being real.
NBC airs “Tom Brokaw Reports: To War and Back” Sunday at 7 p.m. on KUSA-Channel 9.
The rewards of patience are evident in this emotionally revealing documentary, which took time to assemble and has more insight that the standard quick-hit TV magazine piece.
Brokaw scores a long-term insider’s view of a band of brothers from a small town in upstate New York who went to war in Iraq with their Army National Guard squad and came back – those who did come back – changed forever.
The veteran journalist seems happily out of the anchor chair as he returns to the field, playing pool with the guys, chatting at a diner and eliciting heartfelt responses.
People stories were always Brokaw’s passion. While Peter Jennings did more globe-trotting and enjoyed making global politics understandable to Americans, and while Dan Rather had a tougher edge, famously buttonholing officials, Brokaw’s strength is bringing the news home in a humanizing way.
By gaining access and following the group over the course of 10 months, the documentary fleshes out the story of the physical and psychic costs of war, detailing the anger, grief and pride of those involved. Personal videocam footage is incorporated to round out the tale of the guys hanging out in civilian life before going to war, cutting up during the tediously dull moments in Iraq, and taping a goodbye message to a fiancée.
No infantry unit from the New York Army National Guard had seen combat since World War II, so it seemed a safe bet when the gang signed up. To their surprise, and that of the entire town, the seven friends were shipped out in October 2003, bound for Iraq.
Only six would return. The others now deal with a range of serious disabilities, losses and post-traumatic stress disorders.
They talk haltingly about their feelings, gently prompted by the white-haired former anchor who has spent more time interviewing and writing about veterans of a war that occurred before their lifetimes than they have spent in adulthood.
The young men recall initial dread about being asked to kill another human being; they recount the importance of friends more than country as the ideal worth fighting for; they reveal recurring nightmares and waking flashbacks, second-guessing themselves, and they talk about how hard it is to relate to civilians their own age who have never witnessed combat.
A mother tells of her efforts to track down the reasons for the lack of vehicular armor that may have led to her son’s death in an open truck.
The hour begs for a follow-up 10 or 20 years hence. How will these young men – some of them physically and emotionally diminished – repair themselves and move on to confront the rest of their lives? We see the start of their routes back but, in keeping with the tone of the piece, it would be meaningful to return to Glens Falls, N.Y., in the future and see how “To War and Back” shakes out.
Brokaw, the chronicler of “The Greatest Generation,” manages journalistic neutrality throughout the piece, but the viewer can’t help but wonder: What effect might this hour have on public opinion today? What effect might it have had back in the days of just three TV networks?
Hearing the young men admit they don’t know and don’t care why they’re at war, the audience can’t help but think the current generation being sent into the meat grinder of combat isn’t fighting as noble a fight as the World War II generation.
With an increasingly unpopular war and President Bush’s approval ratings at a low of 37 percent, the timing of this broadcast could be critical. These days, no journalist holds the power to singlehandedly redirect public feelings about a war the way Walter Cronkite did about Vietnam in 1968. But Brokaw’s contribution to the national discourse is significant.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
