Winter Soldier

Released Jan 27, 1972

1h 35m

Documentary

List

100%

Tomatometer

21 Reviews

94%

Audience Score

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.

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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The film is an important historical document, an eerily prescient antiwar plea and a dazzling example of moviemaking at its most iconographically potent.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

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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

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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

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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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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