As a lover of history, especially wartime history, I have always loved to hear stories, both fictional and non, from the mouths of the participants, the history books, the movies or just your average wartime era novel. In school I would learn about wars taking place in ancient China all the way up to the current War on Terrorism but one war that always seemed to quickly skim over was the Korean War. It seems to be that people don’t really care about it and it’s the main reason why young adults and future generations to come won’t know much about it. Well it was my pursuit of knowledge that led me to watch this documentary entitled Chosin, a film that documents one the biggest and bloodiest retreats I have ever heard of, and it is all told to us through the mouths of Korean War veterans 60 years after they experienced the fight of their lives. Read further to find out a few of the details along with statements from Chosin producer/writer and Iraq war veteran, Anton Sattler.
Chosin is a documentary about the Chosin Reservoir campaign which took place during the Korean War in the 1950s. It was during this campaign where 15,000 US soldiers and Marines had to fight their way back to Hungnam port after the Chinese entered the war and encircled the troops, breaking them off from reinforcements. Over the next 17 days the soldiers had to not only battle the Chinese and Northern Koreans who outnumbered them 10-to-1, but they also had to fight the brutal Korean winter. This documentary features roughly 25 survivors of this relatively unknown battle telling their stories of what happened, how they survived, and how they managed to save 98,000 people from being slaughtered. For most, this is the first time they are telling their stories to anyone.
The first piece of this documentary that amazes me is that it started out from 200 hours of interview footage and was eventually shaped into this 86 minute gripping and emotional story of Korean vets who, for most, are telling their stories for the first time. Producer Anton Sattler stated that most of these men had never even told their wives or kids about what happened in Korea during the massive retreat but decided it was time for people to know. It is for this reason alone that makes this documentary so much more powerful to those that can relate or at least understand where these men are coming from.
Odds are that you’ve never heard a vet recount their time in the shit, but lucky for us the core of this film revolves around that very story telling by the veterans of the Korean War. The lack of storytelling is true for many Iraq vets, Vietnam vets, and Korean vets but if, like me, you have always wanted to hear a war story, this film is your opportunity to do so.
Many of the stories in this documentary started the same, young guys out of high school getting shipped off to Korea with only two weeks of boot camp under their belts. Then, in a few months, after they got acclimated to the war that they all got cut off from the rest of their forces by the Chinese. It was at that point, they hoped they wouldn’t die as massive hearsd of Chinese soldiers appeared, all well equipped and ready for battle while only every other American solider had a rifle to shoot. According to some of the stories, Chinese soldiers were falling like dominos, being blown away by US machine gunners but that wouldn’t stop their brothers in arms from charging behind them. Eventually some of the Chinese overtook military convoys that were rolling by and blew them up. It was amazing to hear one man tell the camera that he literally was the only US solider that was spared from death because his pulse happened to be so low that it was presumed he was already dead so the Chinese didn’t bother shooting his body to confirm it. It’s stories like the ones above that really make you empathize with the solider and wonder how they can deal with the emotional toll that war can have on an individual.
Besides the suspenseful stories that the Vets told, what also impressed me about the film was the storytelling and the score. When they set out to make this documentary director Brian Iglesias and producer Anton Sattler decided to write the story before going into production rather than waiting until after production to see if what was filmed could be shaped into a story. It was this smart preparation that allowed the documentary to flow very smoothly, with all the stories seamlessly integrated, honest in their delivery and with its presentation ruthlessly realistic as we begin the story on day one of the Chinese intervention. To complement the great storytelling, the music gave the film a much more emotional and somber mood that really got you feeling for the soldiers and embracing every word that they spoke, thanking the powers that be that at least some were able to come out alive.
If there was one aspect of the film I found myself having trouble with it was the visuals that were shown in between the talking heads. I personally couldn’t tell if some of it was reenactments, footage taken from wars other than the Korean, or if it was all footage from that war and just not in the Chosin area (although I found the following out from Anton after writing the review).
Most of the footage is actually from the Korean War. Approximately 1min and 15sec of the footage is from a feature film titled “Retreat, Hell!,” which we licensed from Paramount. Due to the cold and the desperate fighting, very little footage was filmed during the battle, so we had to find the next best visual representation (celuloid will simply snap at 40 degrees below zero, and you would have to be out of your mind to be filming instead of shooting a rifle in that battle).
Additionally, while I thought the score complimented the film extremely well and helped express the terrible times that the veteran went through, I can’t help but feel like it never became inspirational or at the very least uplifting. These men survived to tell their tales but at the end of the documentary we still have the somber score playing in the background after text starts to appear on screen talking about the survivors and the 98,000 refugees. The score remained almost monotonous instead of crescendoing at the end which would have allowed the audience to understand how much these soldiers did achieve while they were retreating.
So if you like history, war, or recounts of either, then you then you cannot miss this documentary. I don’t care who you are, I guarantee you’ve never heard multiple stories told and strung together so well like the ones in this film. Furthermore, I bet if your father was in this war he’s probably never told you his stories so this is your opportunity to learn a little bit about your country’s history and potentially some family history. Chosin will be released on DVD September 10th with part of the DVD proceeds going to the Wounded Warrior Project and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. You can visit the Chosin Website to learn more about it.
Rating: An enriching documentary that offers a rare opportunity to step into the shoes of a Korean War Veteran
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