I am spending a quiet afternoon watching Alive Day Memories, a documentary about the wounded in Iraq that I didn’t get a chance to see when HBO originally aired it a week or two ago. It has been a truly shocking hour for me.
It’s the story of ten people who came home from Iraq physically and emotionally destroyed, though still technically alive. One is blind, several have post-traumatic stress disorder to the point where they can”t remember the names of their own children and wake up from dreams where they bit someone’s throat out. Many have no legs., and one woman has no right arm and shoulder. With the exception of one guy who is 41, the rest are in their early twenties. They will live most of their lives with their infirmities and their memories. There haven’t been this many wounded soldiers returning from a war since the Civil War. We have saved their lives, but what will their lives be like???
James Gandolfini interviews these people and shares their stories. As impactful as any of their individual tales are the shots of him, sitting patiently waiting while they cry or struggle with words, embracing them at the end of the interview, introducing himself as “Jim.” I get the feeling this was incredibly difficult for him, a middle-aged man with all his limbs and faculties intact looking at all these young lives upended by violence.
The kids, and most of them are little more than kids, seem to have developed an enormous sense of responsibility to and for each other, and a tremendous love for the country that sent them to war. They all feel that they were, in a way, reborn on the day they got hit: it is called their “Alive Day” — the day they realized they didn’t get killed.
Gandolfini leads the blind veteran offstage. We watch the injured pledging allegiance to the flag. The war goes into its fifth year. Bush goes on doing whatever he wants. Congress goes on doing nothing. And I wonder how the voters feel about staying in Iraq forever.
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