Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq

Originally broadcast on HBO, Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq features The Sopranos star James Gandolfini on a bare soundstage conducting interviews with 10 American military personnel who suffered severe physical injuries during their tours of duty in Iraq (their “alive day” commemorates the day they were injured but survived). Although Gandolfini's middling style of posing questions will not cause Mike Wallace to lose sleep and the hour-shy running time limits the depth and scope of the stories presented, the young men and women appearing here are uncommonly eloquent in discussing both their physical and emotional damage. In many ways, the film helps to fill a ghastly void (conspicuously avoided by the mainstream television news media): the sight of soldiers with limbs blown off or eyes lost in battle. Alive Day Memories also details the still-misunderstood effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on returning vets (with acute injuries or in full bodily health). The film takes great pains to avoid making partisan statements about the Iraq occupation, and neither the filmmakers nor their subjects display any concern about the physical or emotional well-being of the Iraqi people. Nonetheless, the harrowing stories presented here clearly remind us that—contrary to President Bush's famously mistaken remark, the “mission” is far from being “accomplished.” Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)