ER documentary tells some truths about war

David Steinbruner, the author of the piece I just posted here, is one of the emergency physicians featured in the new documentary ‘Baghdad ER’ that HBO will be screening this coming weekend.
CNN had this pre-release description of the movie on their website last week. (Also here.) Read the description there. It makes me definitely want to see the movie, though we don’t have HBO.
The WaPo’s Paul Farhi had a short report in today’s paper about a special screening of the movie that was held Monday night at the National Museum of American History. The main thrust of Farhi’s piece was to note that the support the Pentagon once had for the movie project has waned drastically in recent weeks.
He writes:

HBO executives say that top Army officials expressed enthusiasm for the documentary in March, but that the Pentagon’s support has waned. They believe the military is troubled by the film’s unflinching look at the consequences of the war on American soldiers, and that it might diminish public support.
The documentary, shot over 2 1/2 months in mid-2005, contains graphic and disturbing footage of soldiers reeling from their wounds — in some cases, dying of them — as Army medical personnel try to save them. The film illustrates the compassion and dedication of the staff of the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. But it also has many gruesome images, such as shots of soldiers’ amputated limbs being dumped into trash bags, and pools of blood and viscera being mopped from a busy operating room floor. At one point, an Army chaplain, reciting last rites for a soldier, calls all the violence “senseless.”
… The network screened the film in mid-March for senior Army officials, including Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey, and received an enthusiastic response, said Richard Plepler, HBO’s executive vice president.
… Thereafter, Plepler said, the Army’s support began to evaporate. The network’s offer to co-sponsor a screening of the film this week at Fort Campbell, Ky., the home of the 86th, was turned down by the Pentagon without explanation. The Army wasn’t an official sponsor of Monday’s screening, and none of the service’s highest-ranking officers or senior medical personnel attended, despite HBO’s invitation.

Farhi also wrote this:

Among the guests in attendance was Paula Zwillinger, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Mininger, 21, died in Iraq from injuries from a roadside bomb. Zwillinger said in an interview that she didn’t know exactly how her son died until the film’s producers — Joseph Feury, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill — contacted her as they were editing the film. Mininger’s death is chronicled in a prolonged sequence at the end of “Baghdad ER.”
She called the film a gift. “It gave me peace. At least I know he was with someone, and didn’t die alone,” she said.
Despite the grim subject matter, Zwillinger said: “I am positive about this film. It needs to be shown. I want the world to know this is reality. War is graphic, war is raw, war hurts. And we need more support for our troops, no matter what we think of the war.”