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Winter Soldier

Play trailer Poster for Winter Soldier Released Jan 27, 1972 1h 35m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 21 Reviews 94% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
This landmark documentary chronicles a 1971 meeting during which more than 100 American veterans spoke publicly at a Detroit motel about the inhumanity and brutality of the Vietnam War. Attempting to add context to the recently uncovered My Lai Massacre of 1968, the soldiers, a group that includes future Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, recall witnessing atrocities committed against Vietnamese soldiers, unarmed civilians, children and prisoners of war.

Critics Reviews

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Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine Like Hearts and Minds and Fahrenheit 9/11, Winter Soldier is less documentary than in-the-heat-of-conflict document, too close to the bone for "distance." Rated: 3/4 Apr 3, 2006 Full Review Ann Hornaday Washington Post The film is an important historical document, an eerily prescient antiwar plea and a dazzling example of moviemaking at its most iconographically potent. But at its best, it is the eloquent, unforgettable tale of profound moral reckoning. Dec 15, 2005 Full Review Sean P. Means Film.com The most chilling aspect of "Winter Soldier" is that, 34 years down the road, it feels fresh. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 11, 2005 Full Review Dorothy Woodend The Tyee (British Columbia) The voices and faces of the Vietnam vets interviewed in the film give blunt testament to the tragic sameness of all wars. Aug 23, 2017 Full Review Chris Barsanti Medium ...a damning portrait of institutionalized American brutality. Apr 15, 2016 Full Review Thomas Delapa Boulder Weekly For an America enduring another summer of discontent in Iraq, Winter Soldier horrifically seems to prove that what's past is indeed prologue. Rated: 3/4 Jun 12, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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delysid d this film is the holy grail of it's type Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/06/22 Full Review Audience Member An irreproachable, rousing anti-war film. One of the best in the genre! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Historically important and still extremely disturbing. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Chilling and a powerful statement against war. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A deep, emotional documentary interviewing soldiers after the Vietnam war and the horrific experiences they engaged in. Some really deep, graphic story tellings that are almost unbelievable that humans could do such horrible things to each other. Filmed in the early 70s and was banned at the time, and even in 2012 it had a serious impact on the impact of warfare. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Probably the most self-critical Vietnam-related film to have been made in the U.S. (which might explain its scarcity), WINTER SOLDIER is a frequently moving and disturbing documentary about the inculcation of eager, pliable young American men, of a conscienceless barbarism. The fact that the panel of 'Nam vets, convened in front of spectators and a camera crew to convey their opposition to the war, is made up predominantly of articulate, sensitive-seeming men may point to why these particular people broke free of the bonds of pleasure-killing faceless innocent civilians ("gooks"), and came to realize the profound inhumanity of their and their peers' actions and, far worse, the actions of the U.S. military in creating them. Unlike the callousness of the soldiers interviewed in documentaries like INTERVIEWS WITH MY LAI VETERANS and MILLS OF THE GODS, these speakers appear ashamed, penitent, and destined to spend the rest of their days with horrible memories of the torture and massacres they took part in, as well as anger at a government that made them pawns, not only in an imperialistic gambit disguised as a mercy mission, but also in a morality-play tug-of-war back home. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Winter Soldier

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Cast & Crew

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John Kerry

Actor

Jonathan Birch

Actor

Rusty Sachs

Actor

Joseph Bangert

Actor

Scott Shimabukuro

Actor

Scott Camil

Actor

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Winter Soldier

Winter Soldier (1972) Winter Soldier (1972) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis This landmark documentary chronicles a 1971 meeting during which more than 100 American veterans spoke publicly at a Detroit motel about the inhumanity and brutality of the Vietnam War. Attempting to add context to the recently uncovered My Lai Massacre of 1968, the soldiers, a group that includes future Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, recall witnessing atrocities committed against Vietnamese soldiers, unarmed civilians, children and prisoners of war.
Producer
Fred Aronow, Nancy Baker, Rhetta Barron, Robert Fiore, David Grubin, Barbara Jarvis, Barbara Kopple, Michael Lesser, Nancy Miller, Lucy Massie Phenix
Production Co
Winterfilm Collective, Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 27, 1972, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Sep 15, 2009
Runtime
1h 35m