Universal themes: the timeless nature of conflict

From the comfort of tile floors and the Oxford sofa, the white board began to fill with the interlinking themes that would shape the film. "The power of war images lies in the messages that convey the universal truths of humanity." It was a quote shared with me by David Leeson during one of our many email exchanges over this past year. As we pushed on through the early hours of the morning, that quote began to take tangible form.

Historically humanity has never existed without conflict. Driven by the uncounted aberrations of moral reasoning, it is perhaps best summarized by Robert Louis Stevenson's fictional characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, "…that man is not truly one, but truly two… committed to a profound duplicity of life [defined] by the good and the evil." Few groups know that statement as well as the soldiers who find residence within the culture of war.

AT WAR is a film driven by a belief that one of the most misunderstood stories of war is war itself and the soldiers who are called to fight them. It is the attempt to present a film devoid of political persuasion, presenting the chaos of war and the humanity caught in it's grasp whether soldier or civilian.

As our sessions blurred into nights and nights into days, what began as a loosely threaded theme was taking shape to express the messages both universal and specific to ourselves, humanity and the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A subject that is both timeless and pressing to our realities that are shaping around our modern lives.

At the close of the week's sessions, we had achieved our goal. And in the quiet of the morning I found myself reflecting on a conversation I had with a Special Forces Operative following one of our patrols, "On the ground, politics disappear; the moments become defined by the person on your left and on your right and the commitment to keep each other alive." He continued, "No one who has ever been in combat wants more fighting. We accept it as part of our job. Our goal is to do our job, do it well, and come home alive... all of us."

www.atwarfilm.com

Copyright 2007, Scott Kesterson

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