Going Upriver

I'm tired of hearing about Senator Kerry's war record in Vietnam. Not because I think it doesn't matter, but because I think it does. I also think the constant harping is simply a ploy to distract us from the real issues of the day. I have little doubt that John Kerry served with reasonable honor in a bloody, awful, pointless war 35 years ago. I've heard so directly, first-hand from Gene Thorson, an Iowan who served with him. The attacks by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans (started by another Iowan, to our shame) are ludicrous. And horribly effective during this dirty, vicious election season.

Now there seems to be something like an answer to the attacks (as if the recants by the original ad participants wasn't enough). A new film, Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry comes out this Friday in limited national release. It has been critically praised in Time magazine, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly:

If the big brains behind the Democratic presidential campaign are still in search of a strategy, they might want to consider getting every undecided voter in America to see Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. This potent and eye-opening documentary, assembled by director George Butler (Pumping Iron) from a vast array of archival footage, shows us what the media has presented only in fragmentary glimpses: a compelling, blow-by-blow account of John Kerry's service in Vietnam -- and, more than that, the full revealing chronicle of how he ultimately came together with hundreds of his comrades to form Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

For show times and locations, go here. I'm disappointed that it is showing at three locations in the Des Moines metro area, but only one other location in the rest of the state. Time to make some phone calls.