Poetry has long been a medium that has communicated the concerns of the heart and mind during times of crisis, and one subject that has motivated many poets to reach for their pen is war. Many of the world's great poets have written eloquently about the violence and madness of armed conflict, among them Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Wilfred Owen, Sherman Pearl, and Siegfried Sassoon among many others, and in 2003, when Laura Bush invited a group of poets to visit the White House for a symposium
on American verse, author Sam Hamill responded by founding an activist group called Poets Against the War, and persuaded many of the participants to contribute verse that denounced American military policy. Filmmaker Rick King has examined the link between poetry and anti-war protest in the documentary Voices in Wartime, which looks at how many writers have used their poems as a vehicle of protest, the events that promoted poets to speak out, and how the tragic consequences have inspired both experienced and novice writers alike. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Stodgily structured by intercutting grisly stock footage with talking heads and muddy videos of Poets Against the War events, Voices in Wartime isn't nearly as cinematically inspiring as many of the poets it brings to light.
It's interesting that, in a documentary about war poetry that supplements literary readings with the occasional use of exceedingly bloody archival war footage, the words more than hold their own against the pictures.
Making poetry cinematic requires greater imagination than King evinces...If the medium isn't always as sturdy as the message, that's a fault that can be readily overlooked.
...fascinating and extremely literate documentary Voices in Wartime manages to present the poet's position on war without turning completely into an anti-Bush film.
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