Film offers poignant look at the cost of war

In the United States, it was known as the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, they called it the American War.

No one could call it a popular war.

In 1999, a poignant documentary, "Regret to Inform," graced the nominee list of the 71st Academy Awards. It was directed by Barbara Sonneborn, and brought together the moving accounts of widows afflicted by the uncaring visage of the Vietnam War, told from the perspective of both Vietnamese and American women.

Sisters Movie House will showcase the acclaimed film on Thursday, September 17, for a special one-night engagement at 6 p.m. The movie was a winner of more than 10 major festival awards including prizes at the Denver International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.

Xuan Ngoc Nguyen, one of the featured South Vietnamese war widows who also served as interpreter for the film, will attend the screening to discuss the film and her life experiences as a child during the Vietnam War and how she survived the devastation to her family and her soul.

Lisa Clausen, owner of Sisters Movie House, thinks it's a beautiful film that everyone should see.

"It is good for high-school-age kids and up," she said. "There is an important message of the atrocities of war and its everlasting effects on people's minds."

To make the film, Sonneborn ventured back to Vietnam 20 years after her husband, Jeff, was killed in a mortar attack. She set out on a pilgrimage to trace her husband's footsteps, to relive some of the emotions he must have felt before he died. It is a transcendent journey, full of self-discovery and painful memories. Gazing out the window of the railcar, past neon green rice fields, her travels are punctuated by stirring interviews with several courageous women whose loss and love project far beyond the camera's eye.

"Regret to Inform" tells its quiet stories without the distracting glare of a political agenda and instead allows for the cathartic expression of universal emotions, the simplicity of a woman's tears and the unfathomable enormity of grief.

The movie wields its magic by divorcing itself of any heavy-handed "War is Hell" message. Instead, it allows the images and words of the afflicted women to empower the narrative and become something more than the sum of its parts.

Crafted with style and grace, its indelible imagery and haunting musical score, composed by Hollywood veteran Todd Boekelheide, lingers with you long after the initial viewing. Boekelheide's other credits include re-recording work on many feature films such as "Amadeus," "Fight Club" and "Blue Velvet." His music was also featured in the award-winning documentary, "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," which chronicled Francis Ford Coppola's private nighmares filming the movie "Apocalypse Now."

Sonneborn shows firm command over the conventions and structure of the documentary form, a deceptively difficult filmmaking genre to master. This is an honest and unflinching look at an often-overlooked group of victims and the essential similarities of their stories, replete with all the panoply of human emotions one can imagine.

It is not overly sentimental, but allows the material to stand on its own and work its potent influence through artful battlefield images. It is immediately absorbing with the affecting countenances of the brave women, interspersed with rare and startling archival combat footage: F-105 Thunderchiefs cruising over flooded rice paddies, Agent Orange exploding over dense jungle terrain in terrifying blossoms of fire.

Sonneborn navigates confidently through the sensitive, and at times brutal, material to orchestrate a heartfelt message of the triumph of the human spirit. The film runs 72 minutes. All veterans are encouraged to attend.

For more information visit Sonneborn's Web site at http://www.regrettoinform.org or contact Sisters Movie House at 549-8800.