FTA: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Francine Parker: Movies & TV
FTA: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Francine Parker: Movies & TV
Amazon.com
The FTA is a now-fascinating 1972 documentary capturing actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland in a then-infamous traveling troupe of political theatre protesting both the Vietnam war and the presence of American military bases in Okinawa, the Philippines, Japan, and elsewhere along the Pacific Rim. A kind of anti-USO show, “FTA” (i.e., “F**K the Army”) featured Fonda, Sutherland, folk musician Len Chandler, singer-songwriters Holly Near and Rita Martinson, and comedian Paul Mooney in a sketch-and-tune performance for dissident soldiers and sailors. The show itself doesn’t leap out as particularly dynamic all these decades later, but it’s the context that matters. Early on, Sutherland describes an assault by U.S. forces on a Vietnamese village as if he were calling a baseball game–a macabre but effective satire that rouses the audience. Fonda participates in a sketch about the way families of officers are treated far better by the American government than the families of ordinary grunts. Much of the film is dedicated to the comments and testimony of servicemen who had seen and done what most of us will never know about Vietnam. Black soldiers define and describe the role of racism in the war, and much is said about racist policies toward the native peoples of the countries where American bases were allegedly so unwelcome. Throughout, Fonda takes any opportunity to declare, in the most general terms, that U.S. troops don’t want to be in whatever country “FTA” is visiting, but again that kind of hyperbole was a then-part of everyone’s life and times. –Tom Keogh
Product Description
Available for the first time since it mysteriously disappeared in 1972 after only one week in theaters, this raucous film is a riveting slice of the Vietnam anti-war movement. Reviving the wonderfully campy, yet biting theater of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland’s Free The Army (or, more popularly, F*** The Army ) Tour, FTA captures the entertaining magic and mayhem of the anti-war and pro-labor show as it rallies and rouses dissident GIs stationed along the Pacific Rim.
A gritty mix of rollicking performances and GI interviews, FTA juxtaposes lighthearted political satire with the somber realities of war, occupation, and the absurdities of military life, a barbed rebuke to the staid USO program. From Okinawa to the Philippines, stirred by the show s provocative message, the members of the U.S. military find courage to speak out candidly in front of the camera.
Fonda and Sutherland are joined on stage by an all-star cast of musicians and activists including folk musician Len Chandler, songstress Rita Martinson, and comedian Paul Mooney.
A fresh look at the Vietnam anti-war movement through the songs and skits that shook a generation, this film will leave you singing along with the fired-up men and women of the military. Foxtrot, Tango, Alpha… F*** the Army!
DVD Features: Update: Interview with Jane Fonda
Special note from the licensor, David Zeiger:
“Why did FTA disappear 37 years ago? To put it another way, why did a film featuring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland at the height of their careers, less than a year after their hugely popular film Klute (for which Jane won the Academy Award for Best Actress), suddenly get yanked from theaters after only one week?
The answer lies in the film itself, and the turmoil it revealed. 1972 was no ordinary year. It was the year of Watergate. It was the year of Nixon’s horrific, relentless bombing campaign against the people of North Vietnam. And it was the year that the rebellion of soldiers and marines against the Vietnam War spread to the navy and air force. FTA is the film that reveals and revels in that rebellion in a way that no other film did then or had for 35 years, until I made Sir! No Sir!
Francine Parker, who directed FTA, swore to me a couple of years ago that Sam Arkoff, the enigmatic head of American International Pictures, which was distributing the film, told her he had received a threatening phone call from the White House-and that is why he pulled the film. Is the story true? There’s no proof, but I can’t think of another reasonable explanation for Sam Arkoff, a man who knew how to wring every penny out of a film, yanking one starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland from theaters at a big loss (and, apparently, destroying all of the prints, since none were ever found). And what happened after that certainly gives credence to the story.
With the yanking of FTA, the story of the GI Movement against the Vietnam War was also yanked from public view, and has since been deeply buried under a swath of myths and lies that poured out of a newly “patriotic” Hollywood in the late seventies and early eighties. Rambo was just the tip of the iceberg, as the memory of an illegal, immoral, and hideously deadly war was replaced by Ronald Reagan’s declaration that “The antiwar movement betrayed our troops.”
I brought back FTA because I want you to see and feel the truth. Sadly, Francine Parker died a year ago, before she could see her film finally get its due. But the film is here. Watch it, and let yourself feel the electricity of that time. More importantly, ask yourself what it is about “then” that feels like “now,” that speaks directly to us today. When you listen to Donald Sutherland give his mesmerizing rendition of the soliloquy from Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, look around you and ask yourself if anything has really changed. And while you’re doing that, enjoy the film. It’s a lot of fun.” –David Zeiger
Hearts were in the right place,
By Huston Huddleston (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
I’m thrilled this is out FINALLY, it’s an interesting movie, certainly the original demonstration wouldn’t have gone so smoothly had Sutherland and Fonda not been involved, but as far as entertainment value, it’s forced and mixed to say the least. Maybe if Abbie Hoffman, Lenny Bruce or the Smothers Brothers Variety writers had been involved at this point, it would have been a wittier, more clever show. As it stands, it has the subtlety of an axe through a forehead. Since a similar high profile show with “stars” wasn’t done to protest our last ten years of administration, I think FTA shows how much more guts people had then to fight for something they believed in, without fear of unpopularity or jail time.Search Amazon.com: FTA: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Francine Parker: Movies & TV from AmAzon
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