This moving episode of NCIS brings forth the wonderful acting of Charles Durning, and a most deserving Emmy nomination for his performance. Mr. Durning plays a World War II veteran who has been suffering in silence because he believes he killed his best friend on Okinawa in 1945. When we meet him, despite having won The Congressional Medal of Honor, he is turning himself in to Investigative Services for murder. He's elderly, drinks too much, and his memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. For these and other reasons Gibbs does not believe his story, or at the very least, believes this soldier probably acted on behalf of his fellow comrades caught in a dangerous war zone surrounded by Japanese. This episode brought tears to my eyes several times. Mr. Durning is so completely convincing as a man in agony. We hear strains of Edward Elgar in the background, and see painful images of what it must have been like for this soldier, as the Japanese slowly crawled toward the Americans on the black sand at night. Watch this for Mr. Durning, and for all the soldiers who didn't come back, for only the dead have seen the end of war.
Review of Call of Silence
