mgconlan

Though I've only seen the cut-down 57-minute version aired on PBS, I found this documentary quite moving and surprising — especially when compared to the interesting but far more superficial "American Experience" show on the rescue of the Bata'an survivors which PBS coupled with it as a double bill. The film exposes some more of America's racist heritage — from the 1934 Congressional bill (which FDR is shown signing) which stripped Filipino-Americans of the right to become U.S. citizens as part of offering the islands a sham "independence" to the assumption made in the Filipinos' training that they were too small to fall from the sky properly when parachuting down and therefore had to have weights tied to them — but also shows a profound story of a people willing to ally themselves with the U.S., however shabbily we had treated them, to free themselves from an even worse oppressor. At the same time, in the film's blithe depiction of the double standard endemic to ALL soldiers in wartime — atrocities committed by the enemy show how evil they are while atrocities committed by our side are just retribution — it makes an anti-war statement without necessarily meaning to; whatever justifications may be offered for a particular war or a particular tactic within a war, the fact remains that war brutalizes everyone who fights and should therefore generally be avoided and certainly not glorified.

I was curious about this as an early credit for Hillary Swank, and if I were she and someone mentioned this movie in my presence I'd probably be thinking, "I'm a big movie star now, I've won two Academy Awards, I should be allowed to forget credits like that." Truth be told, though, it's a better than average Lifetime movie and Swank acquits herself marvelously in it as the rebellious teenage girl whose violent relations with her family open a lot of old wounds going back three generations. This has some of the usual Lifetime weaknesses — melodramatic plot construction, an overly reverential attitude towards psychotherapy, sappy piano-and-strings background music (they must have a library of millions of these records) and a limp excuse for punk rock allegedly performed by Garrett's band, as well as the obligatory soft-core porn scene — but it's also solidly acted by a tight ensemble cast, it's all too believable despite the melodramatics, and Gregory Goodell has a visual sense far ahead of most of the Lifetime directors.

This is a move that has never got the respect it deserves. I loved it the first time I saw it — its creators were previously involved in the Firesign Theatre comedy troupe and they brought the same envelope-pushing irreverent spirit to it that they had to their great records — and ever since I've never forgiven the critics for savaging it on its initial release. It's the late John Ritter's finest big-screen performance, it contains the last truly great song recorded by the original Beach Boys, Elvis Costello's music video is an added bonus, and though some of the satire is a bit dated, much of it — particularly the idea of how drastically life in this country will change when we inevitably run out of oil — holds up beautifully. I haven't seen this in years but I wanted to post this to defend this marvelous film and demand a DVD release pronto. (Put me down as mgconlan from Tijuana Heights.)