Review of FTA

In 1971,a troop of anti Vietnam war protesters,led by Jane Fonda & Donald Sutherland toured with an anti war review that they called 'F.T.A.',which could either mean free the Army (or even f**k the Army,depending). They traveled to military bases within the Pacific Rim,where they were welcomed by a then,rising tide of anti war activists in the Military. Hours of footage was filmed & assembled into the documentary film that was briefly released in 1972 as 'F.T.A.'. The week that the film was released by American International Films,Fonda made a controversial trip to South East Asia, and after one scant week,the film was pulled from distribution & was never heard from,again (rumour has it that the Nixon Administration had a lot to do with the film being yanked). Besides the afore mentioned Jane Fonda & Donald Sutherland (who just barely two years earlier acted in the penultimate anti war film,Robert Altman's 'M*A*S*H'),the performances also included the likes of folk singer,Holly Near,and even Peter Boyle (an unknown at the time who would gain fame a couple of years later in Mel Brooks''Young Frankenstein'). Besides the performance footage,we are also treated to interviews with members of the military who had their wits end of the senseless violence & destruction that was the American intervention in South East Asia,which in addition to Vietnam,also included Cambodia (some of the enlisted men would end up in the documentary film, 'Winter Soldiers'). All was not always rosy. We get to see a performance of F.T.A. being disrupted by a couple of pro war,right wing soldiers,voicing their disfavour of the whole production (they were peacefully shown the way out). Women's rights advocate,Francine Parker directs the film (she only directed one other project:an episode of 'Cagney & Lacey'). At times, the film's pacing starts to slack a bit,but doesn't manage to lessen the film's message at all. Well worth checking out if you're an advocate for peace,anti war activist,historical buff,or fancier of the documentary genre. Spoken (mostly)in English,and Okenowian,Tagalog & Japanese with English subtitles. Rated 'R' by the MPAA,this film has some outbursts of strong language & some disturbing images that the troupe got to see while visiting the Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial sites,while on tour in Japan