This past weekend Heide and I continued our trek into the realm of the independent film culture. Our quest took us up to Madison, Wisconsin to the Wisconsin Film Festival. It was held from March 30th to April 3rd. There were probably a hundred film options over a five-day period.
I made sure I got Friday night off and we headed up for fish fry at
Dexter's Pub, and then a couple beers at
Villa Tap. Both these joints are up in the general areas of the Oscar Mayer plant and Tuax Air Field respectively. It was a short jaunt back down Johnson Street and over to the Memorial Union off of Park and Langdon Streets to view our movie at 9:45 p.m. I even had time to grab another beer at the
Der Rathskeller and Heide found an ice cream cone there too. The movie was in the Play Circle Theatre upstairs.
The documentary film "Armadillo" is not for kids. Its subject is about a Danish combat unit in current day Afghanistan - stunning clarity, disturbing reality. The audience was on the edge of their seats the whole time – as a group it seemed. I can assure you, good readers, nobody was using this film as a babysitter for dropped-off" screaming little kids!
As with other film reviews of mine, I am relaying on a bit of an overview by shooting from the hip having seen it just once, and in a theater. This documentary has a thoughtful chronology. We are introduced to a few of military unit's members before they ship out to Afghanistan. They will be part of the multi-national coalition fighting the now almost 10 year war there since the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Several of the Danish soldiers wear beards, including their lead sergeant. The movie gives the dialogue in English subtitles for its non-Dane audiences.
We see the guys with their tearful families, the fellas hire some strippers for a party before deployment, and we see them at the airport shipping out. The documentary has a way of moving slow but then hitting you in the groin. Suddenly they are in their foreboding outpost in Afghanistan. It is January. We are at a creepy place called outpost Armadillo. They meet some of the guys handing off the post to this new unit.
"Don't get mad at yourself if you make gallows-humor comments about something awful that has happened to you," one soldier tells another. True enough, I know from my own military, journalist, and ambulance experiences.
The Taliban fighters are near; in fact they are within meters from the post. The guys are anxious to engage them. The film leads us into the contact slowly. But be careful what you wish for. The progression of the unit's experience begins with answering complaints from Afghans about killed chickens, cows, and dogs, as well as damaged houses in the course of combat operations. We begin to realize the Danes have the same technology as their other coalition partners, using small remote control drone planes, and we get a glimpse of soldiers smoking on cigarettes in a command center while using satellite technology to direct a missile into an enemy compound.
Early in the deployment, their platoon sergeant is wounded and is sent back to Denmark. I was surprised later in the video when he returned to his unit back again to the war. We see the troops at their compound lifting weights, playing video games, and riding motor bikes. Then we jump back to the patrol duty and more complaining Afghans. The soldiers are getting angst waiting for combat action. It comes in the form of an Afghan girl being killed by a mortar. There are scenes of rationalizations. Money is paid to the Afghans for damages. Then by June, three of the Danes are themselves seriously wounded.
The footage gets more intense. There is no narrator and we never see the film crew. As an audience, we are alone with the unit at their toils. During a patrol another soldier is wounded and he had to be given morphine. He looks shell shocked. There is a helicopter evacuation of the wounded comparable to a scene from the Viet Nam War. The wounded soldier survives and one of the last scenes during the film is the unit going to the field hospital to visit him.
The film rather cleverly climaxes with the killing of four Afghan fighters in a drainage ditch. As it turns out, family back home suspects via emails and phone calls that this particular incident involves the killing of enemy wounded. As it turns out, there is a minor "shit storm" over the incident. The soldiers discuss getting their story straight. Medals are handed out. We are left with the impression that the allegations go nowhere in the chain of command.
By August the unit is back in Denmark and given a parade by their local town. We see a few clips of family gatherings and tears.
This film captures an entire tour of duty quite eloquently. It could have been Americans, British, or Canadians. War has a pattern that transcends any particular group. To us Americans who are familiar with wars in Korea, Viet Nam, the Persian Gulf, current Iraq, and Afghanistan, the trail this story takes is an all too recognizable one.
The end game of perennial wars is too often bitter sweet. The goals are too often ambiguous and blurred. The results are too often inconclusive. The cost is too often, too high.
The film did its job.
___________________________________________
As your towns and cities become “new norm” one-theater communities and you are looking for movie-going alternatives, seek out "Independent film" venues. Mrs. Keith and I have gone for the most part nowadays toward "Indy" films. We are so tired of going to where marketing and the movie industry insist we "must go" and belaboring what we "must see."
My suggestion is to Google "independent film festivals." You may have just missed a good one a few weeks ago in Beloit, and the aforementioned Madison event. If you went and plan to go again next year, then I am preaching to the choir.
If you are looking for different movie venue also try college Websites - If you readers are in my neck of the woods, UW-Madison has free or cheap showings of films at various buildings throughout the year, as does UW-Whitewater. Perhaps UW-Rock and Beloit College do as well; give them a call. If you are in Poland or somewhere else far away reading this, use your own imagination; the films are out there somewhere. Many satellite and cable systems offer the Independent Film Channel and or the Sundance Channel.
Give independent films a try; what do you have to lose?
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan) Army Sergeant Steven John Christofferson, 20, of Cudahy, Wisconsin died Monday, April 21, 2008, in Bayji, Iraq, in the Salahudin province, north of Baghdad. He was killed when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (roadside bomb). Sergeant Christofferson was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Christofferson was one of two soldiers killed in the incident. Steven was a 2006 graduate of Cudahy High School. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention both of Steven's parents and grandfather had served in the military. His father was on active duty at the time of Steven's death. Christofferson had deployed to Iraq in September of 2007. Steven was remembered as a good athlete and played football and ran track. He was the oldest son.
The Website legacy.com noted his military Company as Delta and made mention of Mad Dog 5th Platoon.
The Website iraq.pigstye.net via information from WTMJ Channel 4, noted Steven was also a wrestler in school. Family was quoted as saying he joined the Army while still in high school. He had plans to someday open an auto shop.
The Website findgrave.com noted Steven was born on September 5, 1987. Sergeant Christofferson's military awards as including the National Defense Service Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Army Service Ribbon; Weapons Qualification, M4, expert; Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.
The site jsonline.com ran another article and mentioned Steven's great uncle Harlan Nefstead a Baptist minister officiated with the funeral rites. At the time of his death, Steven Christofferson was survived by his mother, Michell Christofferson; father, Jeffrey Christofferson; brothers, Dakota and Dillon Christofferson; grandfather Joe Gervasio; aunt Monique (Dennis) Nimphius; and great aunt and uncle Verna and Harlan Nefstead. Sergeant Steven Christofferson was the 91st Wisconsin military service person killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
0 American and Coalition casualties in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March 2011
100,213 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,903 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,444 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1521 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
867 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,051 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,749 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
104 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
29 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
147 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
