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Sir! No Sir!

Sir! No Sir! (2005)

tomatometer

89

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 6

A powerful reflection on a pivotal era, from a viewpoint seldom visited, this documentary hits home, especially with its relevance to current events.

95

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 1

A powerful reflection on a pivotal era, from a viewpoint seldom visited, this documentary hits home, especially with its relevance to current events.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 933

My Rating

Movie Info

The little-known protest of the Vietnam War staged from within the ranks of the military is explored in director David Zeiger's revealing documentary. Despite the well-documented media coverage of Vietnam War protests that took place on college campuses across the nation, few people but the most ardent history buffs remain aware of the massive protests that flourished in U.S. barracks and military bases at home and abroad. Staged by countless military men disillusioned with the ongoing war,

Dec 19, 2006

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All Critics (55) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (6) | DVD (1)

We haven't got space to do justice to David Zeiger's important historical documentary Sir! No Sir! but suffice it to say that it will change your understanding of the Vietnam era, even if you were alive then.

December 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Salon.com
Salon.com
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I expected to emerge depressed by how long these stories have gone untold, but the speakers' courage and humanity are a shot in the arm.

December 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Zeiger's movie is a timely salute to the risky and brave men and women who had the temerity not only to think for themselves but to speak their minds.

June 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe
Boston Globe
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Shines a light on a forgotten corner of the antiwar movement: the men (and a few women) who returned from their tours of duty filled with doubt and disillusionment over what they saw, and did, there.

June 9, 2006
Philadelphia Inquirer
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About an almost-forgotten fact of the Vietnam era: Anti-war sentiment among U.S. troops grew into a problem for the Pentagon.

June 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
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Honors those who fought, then questioned the morality of that fight, then joined the national protest.

June 8, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
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An aimless pastiche of archival footage and current interviews of former Vietnam vets court-martialed and jailed for their anti-war activities.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

The power Sir! No Sir! has as a film overrides any problems it presents.

December 16, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com
DVDTalk.com

David Zeiger's documentary feature Sir! No Sir! might be described as a therapeutic film, since it seeks to cure some small part of America's amnesia.

November 11, 2006 Full Review Source: The Nation
The Nation

Not only a fascinating illumination of a blotted-out part of the counter-cultural, popular-protest '60s, but a timely questioning of patriotism and duty in the midst of an increasingly unjustifiable war.

September 2, 2006
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Zeiger makes good use of archival footage, photos and sound bites from the period. And the frankness of his interview subjects is refreshing.

July 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Zeiger presents a trippy alternative history that prompts questions about what today's troops in Iraq might be thinking.

June 30, 2006
Salt Lake Tribune

Whatever political side you're on, you owe it to yourself to see Sir! No Sir!

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan
San Diego Metropolitan

Zeiger has rallied remarkable faces and voices.

June 16, 2006 Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego Union-Tribune

Because there's a contemporary vibe to David Zeiger's informative Vietnam War documentary, the film is able to exist on two separate (if unavoidably linked) plateaus.

June 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

An invigorating, compelling tribute to men and women who exhibited real courage and commitment on a different kind of battlefield.

June 1, 2006 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

Recaptures the Vietnam era's revolutionary zeitgeist.

June 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

While a great number of former servicemen are interviewed for the film, their largely one-on-one recollections and testimonies are greatly magnified by the massive amount of archival visual footage presented here.

May 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

Audience Reviews for Sir! No Sir!

Memorable documentary on the trials and tribulations of those who protested the Vietnam war...who actually were in Vietnam. The history of the soliders who rebelled on the field and their lives afterwards. A good addition to the Vietnam canon of film.
October 5, 2012
John Ballantine

Super Reviewer

A very revealing documentary about the anti-war movement that was started by our troops during the VietNam era. Although the imagery we now have is that of dirty hippies spitting on soldiers as the returned from serving overseas, this documentary goes to show that that is a far cry from the truth. There was a concerted effort amongst members in all branches of the military to protest what they were being required to do. Much of it was in the form of propaganda (underground newspapers and the like), but also outright refusal to obey orders. Some were courts-martialed for expressing a differing view, while others were even sentenced for mutiny. Some soldiers went as far as shooting their commanding officers or NCOs. The Black supremacist movement, en-vogue at the time, seized upon the disenfranchisement of Black soldiers to cause problems for "Whitey." One example is the uprising in a military jail in VietNam where White inmates and guards were attacked for days. According to the documentary, this strife inside the military caused the pull-out from VietNam and the change over to aerial bombings. As much as I cannot stand hippies, these people basically had the right idea. I wonder why we don't have this type in the military now (or is much of it not reported?).
September 4, 2009
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