By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI
After a bullet from Iraqi rebels paralyzed him from the chest down, Northland native and Army veteran Tomas Young agreed to film the splintering of his life in the hopes that the brutally honest documentary would serve as a counter-recruitment tool. But Body of War, made by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue, has become much more than an obscure DVD watched by peace activists in church basements or something for the PBS archives.
Body of War chronicles in unflinching detail Young’s physical pain and his tireless anti-war activism since returning from the Middle East in 2004. It made only a brief run in movie theaters but has been met with critical acclaim, and it won the 2007 Best Documentary award from the National Board of Review.
Now it has come to the small screen — just a few weeks before Young returns to Kansas City.
Last week, Young’s film debuted on the Sundance channel, and it continues a short television run today and November 27. The DVD was released late last month. If purchased on the Body of War or Pearl Jam Web sites (singer Eddie Vedder wrote an original song for the film), 25 percent of the proceeds go to Young. The cash from soundtrack sales to the Iraq Veterans Against the War.
In May, Young suffered a pulmonary embolism, which left him in a coma that robbed him of speech and diminished many of his fine motor skills. For the past six months, says his mother, Cathy Smith, the veteran has been recovering at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. “He’s gotten the use of his arms back, and his hands are gradually coming back,” she says. “And his speech is greatly improved.”
In fact, in recent weeks, Smith says, Young has spoken to classes at a local preparatory school, given a speech on Veterans Day and even spent time in a VIP tent at President-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech in Grant Park. Having to work to regain his health, Smith says, hasn’t stifled Young’s desire to speak out against the war. “Absolutely not,” she says. “If anything, it’s made it stronger.”
Once they're back in Missouri at the end of next week, though, Smith and Young hope their fast-paced lives will become a bit more pedestrian.
“He and I are really at the point now where we can’t wait until our life is no longer fodder for a documentary,” Smith says with a laugh. “We’d like nothing better than a normal life where it’s so boring you wouldn’t even write a chapter of book about it.”
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Well it's obvious Freethinker hasn't seen Body of War. Tomas was only in Iraq for 5 days when he was shot.
Welcome home, Tomas! KC is so proud of you.
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