The reality is a little too close

Re “Calling the shots on war movies,” July 7

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know why war movies have not done well at the box office. As a parent of a captain in the U.S. Army who served in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, I did not watch anything on TV or at the theater that had anything to do with the war. Reading about it in the paper was bad enough. It was wrenching to be a parent with a child in harm’s way.

I’m sure many other parents feel the same. Our son is finally home, but I still will not watch those movies until all our troops are home again. What our children have faced in these wars is unimaginable. The thought of reliving it in a movie theater is more than one can stand.

Pauline Schiff

Palm Desert

Army Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale is quoted as stating that “Hollywood had created the crazy ‘Nam vet.”

Beg your pardon, sir, Hollywood may have glamorized, stereotyped or even trivialized “the crazy ‘Nam vet,” but the Vietnam war created the crazy ‘Nam vet. The veterans returning from Vietnam faced a nation filled with disgust and mistrust of government; they wrongly received the scorn of a nation divided as a result. Our returning Iraqi veterans face the same reaction. As Americans, we owe them a better welcome home and thanks.

The irony of Breasseale’s statement is that Hollywood’s portrayal of our damaged servicemen and women may be just what the Army needs to see what happened to its own, and to persuade it not to abandon soldiers as damaged goods like it did after Vietnam. Mark Robinson

Santa Monica