“Conscience” a balanced, affecting debate about war
Despite what the title may suggest, “Soldiers of Conscience” is not simply a brief for conscientious objectors. It’s a thoughtful, challenging, remarkably wide-ranging examination of the nature of war and its alternatives.
While the movie offers the eloquent testimony of four Iraq War veterans who apply for conscientious-objector status, it balances their arguments by presenting a moral justification for war. The latter is emphasized by three drill sergeants and mostly by Major Peter Kilner, an articulate West Point professor of ethics.
Kilner, a former infantry commander with a rare gift for debate, is at his best arguing that war is necessary for defense of the weak. Brief, apocalyptic images of Hitler’s worshippers are used to bolster his case. A slide show of recent atrocities in Iraq becomes part of the opposition’s argument.
Two of the conscientious objectors, charismatic Aidan Delgado (who leans toward Buddhism) and straight-arrow Joshua Casteel (a patriotic, evangelical Christian), are given honorable discharges after they refuse to kill in Iraq.
Delgado, who finds himself incapable of using arms “designed to roast people,” honors one rule: “Don’t take life.” Interrogating an Abu Ghraib jihadist who challenges his commitment to Jesus’ teachings, Casteel becomes defensive and self-doubting and finally opts out of the service.
Perhaps because they don’t have such strong spiritual backgrounds, a 10-year military veteran, Kevin Benderman, and another vet, Camilo Mejia, are given prison sentences. The latter is overjoyed at the freedom he experiences in jail, now that he is no longer required to kill other human beings. All seem genuinely haunted by the war.
“Will I ever again be the person I liked?” asks one soldier. The script includes the revelation that fewer than 25 percent of U.S. soldiers attempted to kill the enemy, even under fire and in combat, during World War II.
Produced with the cooperation of the Army, “Soldiers of Conscience” is so even-handed that it’s not always possible to guess the political leanings of the husband-and-wife filmmakers, Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan (who chose to hold the film’s theatrical premiere in Seattle because it was so well-received at the Seattle International Film Festival last June). According to Weimberg, the key to their approach is respect for both sides.
John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com