Crossing the Line

Unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions, an American soldier in South Korea named "James Joseph Dresnok" abandons his post and walks across the demilitarized zone into North Korea--with no intention of ever returning. After a brief interrogation, he was sent to Pyongyang and was essentially confined to a small house with a couple of other deserters pending a decision on what to do with them. Used primarily for propaganda purposes, after four years in this communist paradise, all four of them seek asylum in the nearby Soviet Union embassy. Apparently, not wanting these poor specimens of mankind all that much, they are quickly returned back to their North Korean captors to live out their days in a manner they so richly deserve--with some living longer than others. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, even though James Dresnok was given every opportunity to make himself look somewhat presentable to polite society, I found nothing about him that was admirable or worthy of respect. Neither, apparently, did one of his colleagues who had nothing good to say about him after spending more than 30 years with him. Be that as it may, although the main character was rather loathsome, the documentary itself turned out to be quite informative, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.