Citizen Soldier

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Citizen Soldier: Trailer 1

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Movie Info

CITIZEN SOLDIER is a dramatic feature film, told from the point of view of a group of Soldiers in the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, known since World War II as the "Thunderbirds." Set in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan at the height of the surge, it is a heart-pounding, heartfelt grunts' eye-view of the war. A modern day Band of Brothers, Citizen Soldier tells the true story of a group of young Soldiers and their life-changing tour of duty in Afghanistan, offering an excruciatingly personal look into modern warfare, brotherhood, and patriotism. Using real footage from multiple cameras, including helmet cams, these Citizen Soldiers give the audience an intimate view into the chaos and horrors of combat and, in the process, display their bravery and valor under the most hellish of conditions

Rating:

R (for language)
Genre:

Documentary
Directed By:

David Salzberg, Christian Tureaud
Written By:

Eli Baldridge
In Theaters:

Aug 5, 2016 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Aug 30, 2016
Runtime:

95 minutes
Studio:

Strong Eagle Media

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Cast

Jordan Alex

James Tyler Brown

Martin Byrne

Jared Colson

Colt Floyd

Eran Harrill
as Himself (as SGT Eran Harrill)

Nathan Kruse
as Himself (as CW2 Kruse)

Justin Smith
as Himself (SGT Smith)

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Critic Reviews for Citizen Soldier

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (4)

Where other good war docs have done more of the storytelling retrospectively, the directors here bounce around in-the-moment POV angles to keep us in the action.

Aug 5, 2016 | Full Review…

John DeFore
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic
Through the incorporation of multiple strategically placed cameras, including helmet cams, the filmmakers, who achieved a similar, grunts-eye-view in 2014's "The Hornet's Nest," create an undeniably palpable experience.

Aug 5, 2016 | Full Review…

Michael Rechtshaffen
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
The tension in "Citizen Soldier" is enough to make you gnaw through your fingernails.

Aug 4, 2016 | Full Review…

Ken Jaworowski
New York Times
Top Critic
For want of a better term, this gives you a "first-person shooter" look at actual war: It's Call of Duty with no cheats or respawns, and real-world consequences.

Aug 3, 2016 | Full Review…

Luke Y. Thompson
Village Voice
Top Critic
A promising but half-realized documentary whose relentlessly upbeat and on-message tone is more akin to a recruiting video.

Aug 4, 2016 | Full Review…

Chris Barsanti
Film Journal International
It's well edited to create a film that tells the soldiers' story well, and for that, many small sins can be forgiven.

Aug 4, 2016 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Jennie Kermode
Eye for Film
Very highly recommended.

Aug 4, 2016 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Joe Bendel
Epoch Times

View All Critic Reviews (7)

Audience Reviews for Citizen Soldier

Aug 31, 2016

"Citizen Soldier" leaves one with nothing more than an overwhelming pity for these brave men. "If we die here, the worst part of dying (for us) is that the hair on our arms won't raise up at our funeral when they play the national anthem." - Captain Morgan Ashworth. That statement alone is exemplary of the kind of misguided patriotism one must adopt to justify US involvement in a war that has time and time again been shown to not be about some vague notion of protecting American freedom but rather to serve multinational corporations, globalist agendas, and involve us in the opium industry's central hub. Sergeant Jared Colson talks about how they can't trust even children in Afghanistan's "generations of people who've known nothing but war, and they're very self-serving." Well, I wonder if Reagan had much to do with the Mujahadeen (aka the Taliban) being armed enough to fight off the Soviets, and I wonder whose country that served at the cost of Afghanistan's infrastructure and populace. It's almost as if foreign interventionists are unwanted there, regardless of one's economic ideologies. You reap what you sow, but for some reason, these poor fellas from Oklahoma had to do a lot more reaping than anyone who actually has anything to do with the diplomatic nightmare that continues in the Middle East to this day. In terms of film-making, "Citizen Soldier" is on par with any given episode of "Duck Dynasty" plus tons of go-pro footage mid-combat. The soundtrack is generic rock/Americana stock music. It briefly touches on the PTSD that is much more prevalent among our armed forces than this documentary lets on, and it seems more like a recruitment film for the National Guard than an accurate documentary of the role the US military plays abroad. Like I said, I feel nothing but sorrow for what these men went through and lost, and it almost seems like they are being exploited for militaristic propaganda.

K Nife C Super Reviewer