Watch Body of War (2012) Free Online

Release Date: 2012

Categories: Movies, Culture & Society, War Film, Documentary, Political Cinema, Biography, Illnesses & Disabilities

Body of War, directed by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue, is a 2007 documentary following Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran paralyzed from a bullet to the spine, on a physical and emotional journey as he adapts to his new body and begins to question the decision to go to war in Iraq. As Tomas's journey unfolds, the film cuts back and forth to Congressional proceedings in Washington, D.C. Footage includes passionate speeches by Senator Robert Byrd as well as a running tally of how each U.S. Senate member voted on the resolution to authorize President George W. Bush to war in Iraq. The National... MORE

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Body of War: Phil Donahue & Iraq Vet Tomas Young

Body of War: Phil Donahue & Iraq Vet Tomas Young www.americanprogress.org Twenty-two year-old Tomas Young called his Army recruiter on September 13, 2001. He wanted to go to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Instead, his unit was sent to Iraq in March 2004. Less than a week after arriving, Young suffered a shot to the collarbone that left him paralyzed from the chest down. While Young was recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC, he met former talk-show host Phil Donahue. "I didn't know then that I was going to make a movie," Donahue said last night at a Reel Progress screening of the film. But upon hearing Young's story, he wanted to show the human costs of war to a larger audience. Donahue had never made a movie, so he partnered with documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro. The resulting film, "Body of War," follows Young from his 2005 wedding, through his daily struggles with physical disability, to his involvement in Iraq Veterans Against the War, all set against the backdrop of the 2002 congressional debate over whether to authorize the president to use military force in Iraq. The past year has seen a glut of films about the Iraq conflict, but none so pointedly from the perspective of a returned soldier. THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS www.AMERICANPROGRESS.org From: seeprogress Views: 2244 30 ratings Time: 05:13 More in News & Politics