The Ground Truth (2006)

87% of critics liked it
(47 reviews)
45% of users liked it
(12,317 ratings)

Filmmaker Patricia Foulkrod produced and directed this documentary, designed to shed light on a little examined side of war -- the soldiers who do the fighting. The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War focuses on the men and women who fought in the War in Iraq, but found themselves largely ignored in… More Filmmaker Patricia Foulkrod produced and directed this documentary, designed to shed light on a little examined side of war -- the soldiers who do the fighting. The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War focuses on the men and women who fought in the War in Iraq, but found themselves largely ignored in the media coverage of the conflict and in their treatment by the military bureaucracy when they came back from the front lines. In extensive interviews with veterans of the Iraq war, these men and women talk about the hardships of war, the danger of serving in a country where the people you defend often consider you the enemy, the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder, the gap between media coverage of the war and the grim realities soldiers see on the battlefield, and the often callous treatment extended to soldiers by military authorities and the Veterans Administration. The Ground Truth was planned with a March 2005 release in mind, in hopes of having the film in theaters in time for the second anniversary of the beginning of the war. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 19 min.
Directed By: Patricia Foulkrod
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Special Interest

In Theaters: Sep 15, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Sep 26, 2006
Studio: Focus Features

Critic Reviews

Claudia Puig, USA Today
The voices of these brave young people reverberate hauntingly.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Mostly a string of talking-head interviews, but those talking heads -- more than 16 men and women -- are compelling.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
The Ground Truth powerfully documents the human cost of the Iraq war.
Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger
It's an edifying, upsetting film that offers a different perspective on the situation in the Middle East.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
Those vets certainly deserve to be heard, but virtually every scene of the film tells us something we already knew.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
This thoughtful, sensitive film, perhaps the most emotionally wrenching of all the Iraq documentaries, could have been made after any war.
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer
perhaps the most important protest statement yet committed to film since the outbreak of [the Iraq War]
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Sobering.
Christopher Campbell, Cinematical
"The success of The Ground Truth lies in the courageously open and honest interviewees, but it works because of Rob Hall's editing, which not only compiles for us a perfectly evidential collection of footage but does so at a pace that doesn't dilly-dally
Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
This film is effective because it doesn't rely on statistics, but rather interviews with soldiers, interspersed with combat footage.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Um retrato impactante das feridas de guerra invisíveis e do descaso com que o governo Bush lida com aqueles que finge honrar.
Ethan Alter, Show Business Weekly
The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends makes up in raw anger what it lacks in objectivity.
Steve De Sanctis, iF Magazine
[W]hat makes The Ground Truth compelling viewing for hawks and doves alike is the straightforward manner in which the participants tell their stories.
Jurgen Fauth, About.com
The Ground Truth ought to show in classrooms and outside of army recruiting stations.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
The veteran's problems are something which should be done something about and soon, but a theatrical release of a propaganda film is not going to do anything for their cause.
Sara Brady, Premiere Magazine
This film, a raw howl of outrage and pain, is proudly one-sided, allowing a generation of wounded men and women to scream their betrayal.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]The illuminating documentary, "The Ground Truth", reminded me of what a ROTC cadet told me during the First Gulf War - that if you enlist in the armed forces, you may be called on to kill at some point. Let's have no illusions. It is true but only… More
[font=Century Gothic]The illuminating documentary, "The Ground Truth", reminded me of what a ROTC cadet told me during the First Gulf War - that if you enlist in the armed forces, you may be called on to kill at some point. Let's have no illusions. It is true but only up to a point. A good deal of the veterans returning from Iraq who are interviewed for this documentary(Basically, not the kinds of people that are heard from everyday. Thankfully, no pundits are included. Just a couple of experts.) are National Guard and were not expecting to be stationed there, least of all to be placed in a position to kill civilians. Did the masterminds of this catastrophe have any idea what they were sending these brave soldiers into? Some of whom return missing limbs; others are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) because of their experiences and for which they do not receive adequate treatment.[/font]
Sunil J

Rough to watch but heartfelt and honest.