Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Marlboro Marine documentary link from Mike Lohre

Link to the short film we will watch in class.  We know PTSD affects children and adults and makes life very difficult.  This film helps us understand it from one American perspective.

For your homework, add to the conversation by using the Comments feature below.

http://mediastorm.com/publication/the-marlboro-marine


All best,

Mike

James Blake Miller in Iraq, 2004.  This photo became one of the most iconic images of the Iraq War.



17 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed the short film because of how it gives us an inside look of a soldier and his struggles once he returns to his civilian life. I think that it is important that awareness is still to be spread about PTSD but also to learn the valuable lesson of how there's a person behind every picture. The film does an excellent job of doing both but focuses more on how crippling war can be on the soldiers. It gave me a perspective that I haven't seen before pertaining to the individual sacrifices that soldiers make even after they serve their time

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  3. This film showed how serious and how important it is to be there for the veterans that come back from the war. Without the love and support from their friends and family most of these veterans are alone and confused. This video gave me a different perspective on life and how easily it can be taken away from us, and how many sacrifices that the soldiers make, even if its not always what they want, but instead for what is the best for the ones that they love.

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  4. I also really enjoyed the film because it made it very real for the audience by providing the perspective of a veteran who thought he couldn't take it anymore and began to consider suicide. What really shocked me in the video was when he said that he went to D.C. to meet with a member of congress but that when he arrived for the meeting, the congressman's assistant said that he was to busy and didn't have the time to meet with the veteran, this also sort of angered me as the congressman basically seemed not to care how valuable the veteran's contributions were.

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  5. I'm really glad I watched this video. I personally know someone that was affected by PTSD. Watching this video made me realize first hand what veterans go through after returning from war. He suffered with depression, thoughts of suicide and survivor's guilt. He didn't have another veteran to talk to so that made it even harder for him. He let someone he loved go because he didn't want her to deal with his weight as well. One thing that really stuck out to me is when he brought up that people should ask how a veteran is doing when they return home from war instead of asking if they want a party. It shows that the veterans wants to know that someone is there, that someone cares for them. The photographer cared for him. he didn't want him to take his life. Every veteran deserves to have someone there that is going to listen to them and care for them.

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  6. Its hard for me to imagine the kinds of things soldiers do and see. I could never see myself being in their position. I say that because it takes a certain amount of strength just to be in that environment let alone carry out the duties of a soldier. The thing that I was most shocked about is when he was talking about how the congressman said that he didnt have enough time to speak to him. On any level, that is insanely rude first of all. His job as a congressmen is to talk to people and listen to what they have to say. The fact that he denied a veteran is even more mind blowing. If it wasnt for people like Blake who defended and protected our country, whose to say that that congressman would be standing in his fancy office with his fancy suit along with all of his pushover assistants. The lack of respect shown to veterans in general is unbelievable. I think that this film was a great way of showing what veterans go through. Seeing the pictures and hearing Blake talk made an even better impact.

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  7. This video is eye opening, from listening to Miller talk about his contemplation of suicide and his struggle with depression, to the disrespect of law makers and his heartbreaking divorce. The affects of PTSD are far reaching. So much more needs to be done for our veterans, they put their lives on the line (and take live) and are left to deal with the affect on their own. The film was well put together; the way it used snap shots of Millers with his voice in the background was much more powerful than an interview would have been. This allowed us to see everything he was talking about both gruesome and beautiful. I was happy to see that he found people he could talk to and who understood him in the end.

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  8. This video just strengthened my respect and care for all of our veterans. Many people often forget that when they come home the war is not over for them. In some cases it never will be. I feel James Miller said it best when he said in stead of asking a vet if they want a beer, we should ask how they are doing. Our veterans are by far some of the best people our country has to offer and we need to make sure that each and every one of them is taken care of.

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  9. I hope I'm not mistaken but James Blake Miller was the composer of the music heard throughout the short film and I don't know what it is about finding that out that is so interesting to me, but it really is. We are taught and shown that our military members are tough, rugged, no emotion, hard, "killing machines" and I think it is so easy to forget that every single one of them is a person. A human being that is going to forever remember the things they saw, went through, and have to live with. Hearing just the small amount of beautiful music made by this man who has seen so much destruction in his life really makes me emotional. What he has composed is full of sadness, it is like he is taking the beauty of the music a piano makes and allowing it to tell his story in ways that words can't.

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  10. This is hard to watch I have seen many cases like his in my friends but they weren't as fortunate as him. Everyone that goes to war comes back with demons and struggle to fit into normal society. There isn't enough being to help veterans and the fact that there is reported cases of veterans dying waiting on medical care at a VA center just proves the point. Hopefully one day the system figures it out and everyone gets the help they need.

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  11. I found this video to be extremely touching. Like Bowker's story in The Things They Carried, it puts a face to PTSD. So many veterans suffer from PTSD and feel the same way Miller feels and hearing his thoughts and how he feels really opened my eyes, It really got to me when he was talking about committing suicide and said "If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna make it one hell of a ride." He seemed to see suicide as a positive thing, a way out of his misery. The fact that he was bottling everything up and not talking about things led to him feeling like killing himself would be a relief and would bring him happiness and that is so upsetting to me. I think there need to be more people like the photographer who see and understand that there's more going on and that these veterans suffering from PTSD need to have someone there for them. After all they have to witness and have to do, veterans deserve to have people who genuinely appreciate them, care about them, and are willing to help them cope with what they're dealing with.

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  12. I am not a very emotional person but this video almost had my eyes watering. To see what a veteran is going through, if even only through a summarized view such as this video. He clearly states that on multiple occasions he was ready to give it all up and end his life. To think what could possibly be going through his head to make him think about killing himself is unthinkable to those of us who have never served in war.

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  13. PTSD and the effects of it is one of the biggest crisis's in the nation, the general subject of mental health. Mental illness has certainly hit home for me because my best friend has suffered from mental illness since he was 6 years old and I have a strong presence of mental illness in my family. We need to take care of our vets and focus on taking care of the ones that gave their lives so we don't have to sacrifice our freedom and everything we have. It is definitely an issue we need to fix and I see it every day in my own home when my dad is kicking and screaming every night as he lives through nightmares of being in war; being in a fox hole or a trench or running across a mine field. It is a tragedy.

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  15. Miller's story was interesting enough and powerful enough that I decided to do a little more research. Through my research, I learned that shortly after Miller's identity as the "Marlboro Man" became public, the US Government tried to make him into their poster boy for the war. They sent the head of the 1st Marine Division to meet him and offer him a trip home. Not wanting to leave his fellow soldiers behind, he declined. He later told Sinco “It just wasn't right” [1]. After this, he used his fame from the photograph to become the voice of PTSD among veterans.

    Another thing I noticed is how Sinco, who wasn’t related to Miller in any way, saved his life by driving him to Connecticut. We, as a nation, need to be more open with how we talk about/deal with veterans and their struggles. The stigma against mental illness plays a role, but there’s also this inherent unwillingness to involve ourselves in something that isn’t ‘our business’ that stands in the way of all of us. As shown by the film, this is clearly the wrong attitude. One could argue that it wasn’t Sinco’s place to offer Miller help. That nobody would have blamed him if he'd just left Miller alone that night.

    But he didn't. Instead he offered Miller help, and he did so even though he felt like he was getting into a situation he didn’t quite understand. We need more people like that. We need more people who realize they can help someone no matter who they are.

    There’s a really good article, written by Luis Sinco himself, here:

    [1] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-marlboro11nov11-story.html

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  16. This video I believe really describes what it is like to be a veteran of a war that the country is against. I believe this is why Blake was feeling the way he did was because He did not have anybody to support him. He also talks about how this war is just like Vietnam in the ways that he does not know who or what we are fighting. The music in the video also stuck me as very mood defining. The music almost influenced me in the way I felt towards the video. I found it interesting in the end that it was Blake who composed the video. I also noticed the use of black screens I thought that this was probably done on purpose because it showed the severity of the topic that was being discussed.

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  17. This video really hits home for me. One of my Dad's friends killed himself after two years out of the Navy. He always said it was too much. He ended up getting into drugs and said the walls were closing in on him. I noticed something that I think symbolizes how Miller is feeling. About halfway through the video there was a picture where Miller was standing in an elevator and he was holding his hands on the walls. It makes you see that to him it felt like the walls of life were closing in on him and the pain was getting too bad. The video also shows that he smokes a lot which is probably because he is under so much stress and depression. They really try to bring you in on the smoking with the real slow motion soundbite and video of Miller lighting up. I really for Miller and i've what PTSD can do to people. It's a nasty thing to deal with.

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