In Country (2015) Movie Critic Review

Documentary, History, Hollywood, Movie Review, War,

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In Country (2015) Movie Critic Review
Runtime:     80 min
Official Site:     http://www.incountryfilm.com/
Production:     Naked Edge Films
Genres:     History, War, Documentary
Country:     USA
Language:     English 
Director:      Mike Attie, Meghan O'Hara
Stars:        Travis Cole, Lucien Darensburg, Charles Ford

In Country (2015) Critic Review: *In Country follows the men of Delta 2/5(R) as they recreate, by choice, the battles of the Vietnam War once each year. Disquieting and provocative, the film asks, "what compels these men to bring this controversial war back to life*

IMDB By 6.4 : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2795662

In Country Movie Review By MDBReviews 

The reason of In Country—a narrative about a gathering of men who take part in reenactments of the Vietnam War—recommends it will be another The Act Of Killing or, maybe on the off chance that it plays all the more as comic drama, reminiscent of that play Max Fischer stages toward the end of Rushmore. It just so happens to be something else: an investigation of the memories and driving forces that pull at the souls of U.S. fighters and persuade them to go, over and over, to the front l

Co-directors Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara purposefully and thought-provokingly blur the line between real and fake combat throughout In Country, right from the beginning. The film’s first five minutes focus on Army men dressed in uniform and camo helmets, plodding through tall grass, AK47s cocked as they come upon what appears to be an abandoned Viet Cong camp. One soldier with the words “Ramble On” scrawled across the front of his helmet speaks quietly to camera about how he’s on his second tour and realizes there’s “no end in sight”—at which point, a clearly contemporary-looking red truck drives by his hiding spot in “enemy territory.” It turns out the end is not in sight because it happened almost 40 years ago.

Each one of those men battling and sweating some way or another through the shrubbery, perhaps close to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, are really individuals from troop Delta 2/5(R), a cluster of fellows who burn through one weekend every year inundating themselves in the forested areas of Oregon, volunteering to go to a shockingly legitimate "Vietnam," complete with rifles, tents, and the exact kind of bug repellant utilized back as a part of '67 strapped to their caps. Each member is attracted to this activity for distinctive, yet similarly entrancing, reasons. Some—like Joel Kinney, that "Meander On" warrior who happens to be an enthusiastic gatherer of Vietnam War memorabilia—are intrigued when period and the surge of testosterone and apprehension that originates from playing war. Others are veterans of the later war in Iraq who can't tear themselves far from fight, actually when the fight includes setbacks who are just play-acting at having died. And after that there are the fellows including U.S. Armed force vet Hayden "Bummy" Baumgartner and Vinh Nguyen, who served in the South Vietnamese Army, battling on the same side as the Americans—who really survived the Vietnam War yet feel propelled to r

When an off-camera interviewer, presumably O’Hara, asks Nguyen why he wants to revisit memories that must be bad, he responds, “I don’t know exactly why you said bad memories … I am still whole now, still stronger, when I am with the South Vietnam Army.” Later during the reenactment, Nguyen wistfully describes how the sound of raindrops falling on his poncho tent took him so fully back to his years in Vietnam that he “burst out crying.” For every frightened kid who dodged the draft back then, there are men like these, still happily signing up to serve even when the draft and the war don’t exist anymore.

These guys are so fascinating, in fact, that it feels like In Country could and should have gone longer than 80 minutes so that the movie could delve more deeply into their psyches and provide more context behind how these reenactments were born. This is the rare documentary that screams out for an extended cut, or perhaps to be adapted into an HBO series that’s sort of a meta-Band of Brothers.

The way things are, Attie and O'Hara do a grandly limited, viable employment of depicting the ceaseless dull circle that is military life. Amidst all the strategizing and fake firefights that continue amid this Full Metal Jacket form of a homicide puzzle weekend, the co-executives persistently blend in clasps from the genuine Vietnam clash and additionally individual features shot in Iraq and Afghanistan by re-enactors who as of late served there. Progressively, the footage drains together so flawlessly that it makes a mist of war—both real and imagine that searingly strengthens In Country's point: that our history, in Vietnam and somewhere else, is everlastingly rehashing itsel.




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