VOICES IN
WARTIME
WRITING a
poem is the best way to express the strange mix of euphoria, terror
and fear that soldiers feel during war.
That's a fascinating idea, especially when it
comes from the mouth of someone who should know: Lt. Gen. William J.
Lennox, the superintendent of West Point.
He's just one of the scholars, poets and
soldiers quoted in "Voices in Wartime," a moving documentary about
poetry inspired by combat.
Walt Whitman's Civil War poems are covered, and
there's a particularly touching section on the World War I British
soldier-poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
But the bulk of the documentary focuses on the
Iraqi conflict, particularly a series of recent protests organized
by a group called Poets Against the War.
Conservatives might see this pacifist turn
halfway through the movie as a bait-and-switch game - but it also
comes organically from the subject, since there's no mistaking the
anti-war sentiment of most war poetry.
Running time: 74 minutes. Not rated
(graphic images of combat). At the Landmark Sunshine,
New Metro Twin.
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http://www.nypost.com/movies/42294.htm
It ran in the printed paper on Page
72
