1972 |
Jane Fonda |
Donald Sutherland |
Documentary“FTA”, short for ‘Fuck The Army’ is a masterpiece. It firmly cements Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland as some of the coolest people of all time. Not only outstanding actors, but great political activists.
This is a documentary about a troupe of anti-war activists, lead by Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, who traveled from US military base to US military base in the early 70s, performing, as Jane Fonda put it, ‘political vaudeville’. And both the tour and the film are wonderful.
The songs they perform are all absolutely phenomenal, the film is super funny and the skits they perform are not only hilarious, but also great satirical criticism. It’s also incredibly insightful into the anti-war movement inside of the army, navy and so on and comes off as a sharp anit-war, anti-imperialist, anti-racist and anti-sexist film. It’s also very touching in moments and I got teary-eyed multiple times, like when Rita Martinson performed ‘Soldier, We Love You’. And it ends with Donald Sutherland performing a monologue of the ending of Dalton Trumbo’s book ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ and it’s one of the most intense, most captivating and most inspiring monologues I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
I thought this was absolutely masterful and found myself enthralled throughout the entire runtime. An amazing piece of leftist politics.
