Critic Reviews

• Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

  The vets tell the truth, by any reasonable measure, and then the filmmaker stirs the elements as filmmakers always do, whether partisan or neutral.

• Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

  Inevitably, the film has the air of an extended campaign ad, but that doesn't make its subjects and the stories they tell any less compelling.

• Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle

  Alexander, a political writer and radio host, gets riveting, emotional confessionals from the veterans.

• Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

  For a feature film, this clearly partisan documentary about the Swift boat crew that served under John Kerry in Vietnam is pretty slight, but for a campaign commercial -- which is what it feels like -- it's pretty long.

• Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

  Will this film do Kerry any good, or the Swifties any harm? My bet is: Not a bit, one way or the other.

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  Basically a longer, less slick version of the official Kerry profile unveiled at the Democratic National Convention.

• Scott Weinberg, DVDTalk.com

  It may be an "all-black" Western, but Brothers in Arms would have been pretty darn laughable with actors of any race, creed, or color.

• John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews

  the talking heads format just doesn't make for compelling film, despite its timeliness

• , E! Online

  Serviceable, not high ranking.

• Ross Anthony, Hollywood Report Card

  The documentary is well edited, well paced, and feels genuine. It's educational, important and enjoyable independent of the Kerry campaign.

• Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com

  Tellingly, [John] Kerry is a much more compelling speaker during a 1970s protest rally than in the contemporary footage, where he carefully chooses his words.

• David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

  The movie's main contribution is its fresh look at the Vietnam War, being refought in the Kerry-Bush presidential campaign at the time of the film's release.

Read all 12 critic reviews