Operation Homecoming

Starting its life as an anthology of stories, letters and poems written by soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan for an NEA program, this could easily have been a gassy paean to sacrifice and honor. But Operation Homecoming's impact approaches the multilayered war literature of veterans/novelists Tim O'Brien, Anthony Swofford and Tobias Wolff, all of whom feature in the film. Memorable sequences abound: a terrifying journey manning a Bradley vehicle through an ambush, a touching journey of a fallen private taken back to his ghostly hometown, a comic bit about the excruciating grind of tent life. Operation employs a rich visual palette that changes from passage to passage, and it's aided by a voice cast of celebrity narrators — Robert Duvall, Aaron Eckhart, and Blair Underwood, among others. Operation Homecoming is a wrenching you-are-there experience, exposing us to the full range of feelings experienced by those on the battlefield. (PS)