The fierce debate leading up to a presidential election involves some tough talking on both sides of the political divide. But when John Kerry and George W. Bush went into battle in the buildup to the 2004 race to the White House, the usual political mudslinging contained a formidable war of words, and most of the words were about war. The Vietnam War has long cast a shadow over American politics and Kerry's tenure as a soldier in Vietnam meant that the subject was put firmly back on the political agenda once he decided to run for president. Filmmaker Paul Anderson picked up on this, and decided to trace Kerry's service record during the war, discovering that the senator served as commander of a six-man team aboard Patrol Craft Fast 94, which traversed the Mekong Delta river in 1969. Anderson tracked down the surviving five members of the boat crew--including Kerry--and offers their various recollections in BROTHERS IN ARMS. Doubts have been cast over Kerry's service record, but the glowing testimonials from his fellow crew members quickly dispel any lingering ambiguities surrounding his time in the jungle. Entirely partisan in its approach, Anderson's film adroitly profiles the blossoming authority of the young John Kerry, and offers a tantalizing glimpse of a man heading immutably towards a future life in the political spectrum.
