TELEVISION REVIEW - Putting a face on Iraq war - HBO's 'Alive Day Memories' is a heart- wrenching look at America's wounded.
In "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq," the HBO documentary about wounded soldiers and Marines and their struggles to resume -- regain, really -- their lives, Army Pvt. Dexter Pitts talks about his post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Everything seems like a dark place now," Pitts tells "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini. "I don't feel comfortable anywhere in the civilian world."
Army Staff Sgt. Jay Wilkerson tells Gandolfini about the day his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. "All I heard was screaming, and everything went black."
Wilkerson suffered severe traumatic brain injury, nerve damage to his face and multiple injuries to his left side. He fell into a 12-day coma and later had to relearn how to eat and talk.
And Army 1st Lt. Dawn Halfaker, who lost her right arm and shoulder in a grenade attack, admits to Gandolfini, after a long and painful silence, that she worries that her injury will keep her from having a family.
"I won't be able to pick up my son or daughter with two arms -- I won't," she says. "I hope they still love me. I hope I'm a good parent."
Gandolfini listens and replies quietly, off camera, "If it matters, I think you're going to be a wonderful family."
Throughout all three interviews, and seven others, Gandolfini is rarely seen. He is a respectful listener. There are no star turns -- no cutaway shots showing him racked with emotion.
"Alive Day" is the first project for Gandolfini and his Attaboy Films since "The Sopranos" ended. He's teamed with HBO and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jon Alpert (along with Ellen Goosenberg) for a look at America's war wounded that is detailed, heart-wrenching and altogether brilliant -- must-viewing for anyone interested in the sacrifices made by our soldiers and Marines.
The hourlong effort mixes the Gandolfini interviews (set in a darkened soundstage), home movies shot by and about the soldiers and Marines before their injuries, and, in what could lead to controversy, insurgent propaganda videos showing roadside bomb explosions killing and maiming Americans.
The facts behind "Alive Day" have been the subject of innumerable media stories: that, with better personal protective gear, soldiers and Marines are surviving attacks that would have been fatal in other wars but are coming home as amputees and with severe brain injuries and emotional trauma.
The facts may be standard, but rarely, if ever, has there been a more powerful presentation of them.
