Where Soldiers Come From (2011): B-

Heather Courtney's personal, journal-like Where Soldiers Come From doesn't get us any closer to comprehending the magnitude of the conflicts the United States has involved itself in over the past decade, but in its own manner of accomplished modesty, it aims for the arguably more important task of understanding what these wars have come to mean to the people fighting them; the soldiers and the citizens supporting them. It would make for an illuminating double feature with the great doc Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience or even The Hurt Locker. Unlike more politically macro works, these films stick with those who volunteer themselves as pawns in what they can only hope is ultimately a greater good. $20,000 and college tuition support is enough to lure a tightly knit circle of Michigan friends to join the National Guard after high school, a decision they'd likely alter if they knew what they'd be in for (after several months in Afghanistan, one bluntly calls it "fucking stupid"). Courtney, a fellow Michigan native who wanted to counter stereotypes of small town America, follows these young men stateside and abroad, from their training to eventual deployment and return home. A family member likens their posse to the characters of The Deer Hunter, although tragedy here is of the long-term, low-key brand; lingering emotional traumas, silent brain injuries, and the damning realization by many that they still don't know what to do with their lives.

As we witness these boys becoming men, their experiences and personalities are milked for maximum universality; it's their story, but it's ours, too. What Where Soldiers Come From lacks in distinction it makes up for in heartfelt sincerity, although there is an eye-opening sequence in which soldiers are briefed via PowerPoint with information that hasn't been updated in over four years (their instructor can hardly pronounce Hamid Karzai, let alone verify if he's still president). Director Courtney's self-consciousness about the meaning of it all lends the film a distinctively picturesque beauty (better natural scenery couldn't be asked for, from the abandoned building that functions as a graffiti art gallery to the lighthouse that overlooks Lake Superior) that's at once rapturous and slightly distracting from the core of the matter. Carefully meted out POV combat footage (and no shortage of candid interviews with the soldiers) gives us a taste of their experience, but one can't help but feel stranded in Michigan with the mothers, fathers, friends and girlfriends anxiously awaiting their return. If the film feels unfinished in the end, it's a necessary reflection of how few answers we have for the countless questions we need to be asking ourselves.