I stumbled across this rarely seen film years ago on A&E or Bravo (when they were first class networks and advertisement free) and have never forgotten it. The details are sketchy now. But the film clearly recorded that, in an effort to cope with unrelenting mental agony, these ex-Vietnam soldiers drove themselves into deep, reclusive wilderness life styles after leaving the military.
What stands out was horror and trauma these men felt from the monster that fighting and killing in the Vietnam War brought out in each of them. I was reminded of someone I knew who, also, fought in Vietnam and there was no comparison between the person who went over and the person who came back.
It's a wonder the film makers were able to locate and connect with these men, so desperate were they to be lost to civilization.
It's a shame 'Soldiers in Hiding' is not televised anymore. Like films such as 'Winter Soldiers' it's a needed, sobering, in your face reminder of the final joke that war (any war) is and the great sadness that this lesson is always, always, lost on the human race in general.
What stands out was horror and trauma these men felt from the monster that fighting and killing in the Vietnam War brought out in each of them. I was reminded of someone I knew who, also, fought in Vietnam and there was no comparison between the person who went over and the person who came back.
It's a wonder the film makers were able to locate and connect with these men, so desperate were they to be lost to civilization.
It's a shame 'Soldiers in Hiding' is not televised anymore. Like films such as 'Winter Soldiers' it's a needed, sobering, in your face reminder of the final joke that war (any war) is and the great sadness that this lesson is always, always, lost on the human race in general.
