The Ground Truth- How Political?

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Well, most of the veterans interviewed in The Ground Truth seem to have been recruited for the film through anti-war organizations, and their point of view is pretty uniformly in keeping with that stance (i.e. in favor of immediate withdrawal). (I'll also note that the credits thank numerous noted antiwar activists both within and outside the entertainment community.) Another poster mentioned The War Tapes, which I saw the same night; in contrast, the soldiers in that film have a wider range of views toward the war, with some strongly supportive of the mission and others more ambivalent and critical of the war's conduct (incidentally, they're all from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which might have normally suggested a more liberal background). I get the sense that the filmmakers for The War Tapes offered cameras to troops without asking them beforehand what their views were, whereas with The Ground Truth they seem to have been selected primarily because their views were already anti-war. On another point, I also noticed that The War Tapes generally didn't include music on the soundtrack, preferring to let the soldiers' video and commentary speak for itself, while The Ground Truth uses music (both a background score and songs by Tom Waits, etc.) quite extensively to support a particular mood and attitude toward what's being discussed.

Gary Krause