Short Life of Jose Antonio Guiterrez (2006)
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92% of critics liked it
(13 reviews) -
0% of users liked it
(2 ratings)
José Antonio Gutierrez was one of the 300,000 soldiers sent by US Army to war in Iraq. A few hours after the war began, his picture was broadcast all over the world: he was the first American soldier to be killed in the war. He was there as a so-called 'green-card soldier' - one of… More José Antonio Gutierrez was one of the 300,000 soldiers sent by US Army to war in Iraq. A few hours after the war began, his picture was broadcast all over the world: he was the first American soldier to be killed in the war. He was there as a so-called 'green-card soldier' - one of approximately 32,000, fighting in the ranks of the US Army for a foreign country.The film tells the moving and nearly unbelievable story of a one-time street kid from Guatemala, who headed north along the Pan-American Highway - full of hopes and desires for a better future - ultimately to die an American hero far from home. Searching for the images and stories that made up this life, we set out to retrace José Antonio's path - from Guatemala through Mexico and into the USA. This story is told by the people who knew José Antonio: his friends from the street, the social workers at the orphanage, his sister, his foster family, his comrades at Camp Pendleton in the United States Marines.But the narrators of the film are also the people we encountered as we were repeating José Antonio's odyssey from the world of the poor to the world of the rich. People who day after day join the endless stream of emigrants - with no identity, no papers - equipped with nothing but their ability to work and their willingness to turn their backs on home and family forever. José Antonio's story is no adventurer's tale. It is the story of an attempt to survive - on both sides of the world.--© Atopia
- Directed By
- Heidi Specogna
- Genres
- Documentary, Special Interest
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Apr 27, 2007 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Peter Howell, Toronto Star
While never letting its tone of studious but stewing detachment slip, the movie quietly builds a truly enraging case for a certain form of systematic official cynicism.
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Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
The link between the illegal immigrant problems in the United States and the war in Iraq is explored in the moving documentary The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez.
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Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Mournful and engrossing.
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Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
Although Ms. Specogna's film fleshes out his life to the extent that it can, the portrait remains frustratingly incomplete. But given its larger subject - a young life trampled beneath history's forward march - this seems entirely fitting.
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Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Now, more than ever, it should be seen here in the U.S. for its ironies, both implicit and explicit.
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Cast
- Patrick Atkinson
- Fabian Giron
- Veronica Morales
- Engracia Gutierrez
- Wendy Perlera
- Nora Mosquera
- David González
- Marc Montez
- Miguel Pérez
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Peter Flechtner
as Narrator
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Eva Mattes
as Narrator
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Alexander Radszun
as Narrator
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Ciara Pantney
as Narrator [English Version]
