THE doctors and nurses who care for America’s wounded troops on the battlefield and in hospitals get their due in “Fighting for Life.”
The first half of the film is somewhat disorganized, starting at the military medical school Uniformed Services University in Maryland, taking us through their training classes, and then looking into a field hospital in the Sunni Triangle and the high-tech Landstuhl hospital in Germany. All of this is interesting enough, but since there’s no through narrative, no characters being followed, it’s TV newsmagazine material.
Glimpses of the horror the troops have been through – “We were in a 36-hour firefight,” says one sergeant – make us realize how much of the larger story we’re missing. There’s also a degree of exploitation when, for instance, we are present as an Iraqi captain learns he will never walk again – and begs, “Please kill me.”
In the second half, the emphasis shifts to amputees making remarkable progress at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., and the movie becomes emotional and even uplifting, as well as patriotic. We get to know Army Spc. Crystal Davis, an amputee who improves her fortunes before our eyes, mastering a prosthetic and finally attending a dinner where she and other wounded warriors vow to drive on.
“When I signed up,” says Spc. Davis, “I signed up to make it a career. I’m not letting this stop me.”
Running time: 89 minutes. Not rated (graphic injury footage, profanity). At the Quad, 13th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.