Body of War - A Documentary of Coming Home

Donohue and Spiro's Film Offer a Personal Look at the Cost of War

Oct 4, 2009

Filmmakers Phil Donohue and Ellen Spiro have created a stark and intense account of how a foreign conflict translates into daily challenges for one man paralyzed by the w

Phil Donohue and Ellen Spiro created a documentary that personalizes the War in Iraq. Tomas Young joined the military following 9/11, hoping to go after Al Qaeda and the people that attacked his country. At 25 and paralyzed after serving only a week in Iraq after being hit with a bullet to his spine, Tomas comes home and plans to marry his young fiance. The camera gives us intimate glances into the difficulty of simple movement due to his debilitating injury. The young couple plan to go on their honeymoon to Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, and Tomas becomes more and more vocal about the cost of the war, his very real and very personal cost. (Camp Casey was a group of anti-war protesters led by Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq.)

A Personal Look at the Price of the War in Iraq: One Man's Body, One Nation's War

Tomas and his bride, Brie are willing to accept the limitations the Iraq War has put onto their lives, but it is the day-in and day-out tedium and stress that begins to wear through the fabric of their marriage. As we witness their very real and very human struggles, we learn more about the history of the War in Iraq and President Bush's role in aggressively going into war despite the lack of concrete evidence it was necessary or any legitimate information that there was a causal relationship with our nation being attacked on 9/11. We find out who stood in opposition to the President and who stood with him in his push for war.

Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, the longest serving senator in the U.S., was first elected in 1958. He stood in loud opposition to the War in Iraq along with several other congressional leaders. But the momentum was too large, the fear was too great, and the forces that marched us into war swept all of us up in their path. As Tomas learns more about the politics behind his devastating loss, he becomes more and more empowered as well as more embittered. The boy from Kansas has been transformed from his youth of idealism, a busy social life and dreams for his future, to the reality of bedpans, catheters and pain.

Phil Donohue and Ellen Spiro, Filmmakers, Personalize the War in Iraq

What was taken from Tomas cannot be given back. He will never be able to be young and carefree, never be able to be the man he hoped to be. Heroic, though, are his struggles to gain independence and to accept his limitations. This film can be tedious at times, as Tomas finds his life becoming tedious. It is painful to watch such a young man struggle so thoroughly, and the viewer never forgets for a minute why he is struggling. Since the virtual blackout of photos from the War in Iraq, this film is a rare glimpse into the realities of war; it defines the cost of conflict in a way that most films avoid.

The copyright of the article Body of War - A Documentary of Coming Home in Socio-Political Documentaries is owned by Barbara DeGrande. Permission to republish Body of War - A Documentary of Coming Home in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.