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''The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war,no matter how justified,shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation'' --George Washington--
AUSTIN
(KXAN) — Between 11 and 20 percent of all veterans from the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, according to the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
Some of the veterans end up divorced,
losing their families, living on the streets, and in other cases
committing suicide. This is the focus of a movie in production right
now called “Stronger.” Part of the movie is being shot
in Dripping Springs Friday and across Central Texas.
·I have just watched the film 71 about a young British soldier
that gets left behind by his comrades after a botched patrol in Belfast. I read
a few bad comments about the film on a Northern Ireland veteran’s web site on
Facebook, from veterans who served there. Having served in Northern Ireland and
Belfast myself I was keen to watch it. This is not a Hollywood Blockbuster type
movie with money to burn on special effects and big name movie stars and in my
opinion it was all the better for it. They only had one old Bedford Army truck
and land rover and an APC, all used in the 70s. From what I saw of the uniform
they were wearing it looked ok for the time. They used the same rifles I used
over there the 7.62mm SLR, the only difference I noticed was that the rifle
slings were kept on the rifle and not attached to the wrist as we used them in
the 80s. When a soldier in the film was knocked unconscious by the mob, its was
easily stolen by a young kid. Filming
began on location in Blackburn, Lancashire in April 2013 and continued in
Sheffield and Liverpool and for me this didn't spoil the effects, I mean they
couldn't really make the movie on the streets of Belfast could they? I think
the producers captured that feeling of impending violence and the sectarian friction
between the communities. I sure if I had served in the early 70s I would be
picking the film to pieces, but I didn't and on the whole I enjoyed the film
and was never bored at any time, I was desperate to see what happened to the
young soldier who Jack O’Connell played very well. Overall eight out of ten.
Hollywood films such as The Hurt Locker have highlighted the horrors of modern warfare – but a true story of British heroism could soon grace the big screen.
Kajaki covers the final hours in the life of paratrooper Cpl Mark Wright in the Afghan area of the film’s title.
The 27-year-old was leading an attempt to rescue a three-man patrol injured by Soviet-era landmines when he was fatally wounded by a blast.
Cpl Wright, who was praised for raising his colleagues’ morale, was not airlifted from the scene until four hours after the explosion. Six other troops were hurt, including three who lost limbs, in the tragedy. Read more HERE
An independent feature film about the Falklands War will be made on the Isle of Man next spring. The project is called ‘Betrayed’ and charts a soldier's battle with post traumatic stress disorder. The idea for the film came from a series of acting workshops held in the island this year by actor Lee Boardman. Boardman said: “We have been staggered by how much talent there is on the Isle of Man so we have tailored the roles to fit the actors we have worked with”. “We want to make a movie about the war, but make it on a really low budget which has never really done before. It will be an Isle of Man feature film made only with actors from the Island”, he added. Read More HERE
I really hope that this film is a success and gets the right message across about mental trauma and the Falklands War, but it would be nice to see a British film produced about the War that had a little more money to spend and do a type of `Saving Private Ryan` blockbuster. I was thinking somebody like Guy Ritchie could make a good movie and I would like to see the music from the time lots of Punk Rock to be used in the soundtrack, I can only dream.
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