IGN.com|AskMen.com|Rotten Tomatoes|GameSpy|FilePlanet|TeamXbox|CheatsCodesGuides|GameStats|Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

Register | Log In | What is RT?
It's our 10th birthday, so you get presents!
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
 
MOVIES / ON DVD / SIR! NO SIR!
Sir! No Sir!

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
See Pictures
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

Sir! No Sir! (2006)

88%
100%
65%
N/A
N/A
N/A
88 %
Reviews Counted: 52 Fresh: 46  Rotten:6 Average Rating: 7/10
 
Consensus: A powerful reflection on a pivotal era, from a viewpoint seldom visited, this documentary hits home, especially with its relevance to current events.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 85 mins

Synopsis: In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite... In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam War has been the subject of hundreds of films, both fiction and non-fiction, but this story–the story of the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war–has never been told in film.This is certainly not for lack of evidence. By the Pentagon's own figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being "fragged"(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 100 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself; stockades and federal prisons were filling up with soldiers jailed for their opposition to the war and the military. Yet few today know of these history-changing events. Sir! No Sir! will change all that. The film does four things: 1) Brings to life the history of the GI movement through the stories of those who were part of it; 2) Reveals the explosion of defiance that the movement gave birth to with never-before-seen archival material; 3) Explores the profound impact that movement had on the military and the war itself; and 4) The feature, 90 minute version, also tells the story of how and why the GI Movement has been erased from the public memory. I was part of that movement during the 60's, and have an intimate connection with it. For two years I worked as a civilian at the Oleo Strut in Killeen, Texas–one of dozens of coffeehouses that were opened near military bases to support the efforts of antiwar soldiers. I helped organize demonstrations of over 1,000 soldiers against the war and the military; I worked with guys from small towns and urban ghettos who had joined the military and gone to Vietnam out of a deep sense of duty and now risked their lives and futures to end the war; and I helped defend them when they were jailed for their antiwar activities. My deep connection with the GI movement has given me unprecedented access to those involved, along with a tremendous amount of archival material including photographs, underground papers, local news coverage and personal 8mm footage. Sir! No Sir! reveals how, thirty years later, the poem by Bertolt Brecht that became an anthem of the GI Movement still resonates: General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think. --© Official Site [More]

Genre: Education/General Interest

Starring: Jane Fonda

Director: David Zeiger

DVD Info

Release:

Jul 12, 2007

[DVD Details]

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
N/A

An aimless pastiche of archival footage and current interviews of former Vietnam vets court-martialed and jailed for their anti-war activities.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/01/07
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International
Ratings Image
3/5

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

Full Review | comment Comment
12/16/06
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/15/06
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/15/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/11/06
Stuart Klawans
Nation
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/02/06
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
Ratings Image
3/4

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

Full Review | comment Comment
07/01/06
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Ratings Image
3/4

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

Full Review | comment Comment
06/30/06
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
Ratings Image
N/A

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

Full Review | comment Comment
06/24/06
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
Ratings Image
3/4

Zeiger has rallied remarkable faces and voices.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/16/06
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune
Ratings Image
3/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/16/06
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Ratings Image
3/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/14/06
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
Ratings Image
3.5/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/09/06
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
Ratings Image
3/4

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

Full Review | comment Comment
06/09/06
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/4

Honors those who fought, then questioned the morality of that fight, then joined the national protest.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/08/06
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Ratings Image
B

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

Full Review | comment Comment
06/01/06
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion
Ratings Image
3/4

Recaptures the Vietnam era's revolutionary zeitgeist.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/01/06
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
Ratings Image
3.5/5

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/27/06
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
Ratings Image
3.5/5

Have you heard about the thousands of GI's who refused to go on any more combat missions because they believed the war was wrong? 'Sir, may we have an explanation of why we're fighting, sir?'

Full Review | comment Comment
05/26/06
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
05/20/06
Jonathan W. Hickman
Entertainment Insiders
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
See More Topics...

Related Forums

The Castle
by: terencejr 2/12/07


Darko, Donnie
(Docu)-SIR! NO SIR! nabs a SPIRIT nom for Best docu and gets set for an April release
by: Darko, Donnie 12/22/06
all

Pictures

all

Trailers & Clips

Clip #2
Watch Now >>

Around the Network

• Sir! No Sir! at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sir! No Sir! at IGN
• Sir! No Sir! at AskMen
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.