Moviecut—Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro

source: Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro

Tony Vaccaro is a former American army soldier in WWII. He smuggled in his camera and carried it into battle with his rifle. He unveils rarely seen pictures of his experiences as he fought across France into Germany. There are a few shocking images. Mostly, these are pictures I've never seen before and that's compelling all by itself. His experiences are compelling. It's all very compelling even with the water damage. The documentary tries to incorporate war photography from other eras. It actually is able to critique his reluctance of taking a few of the more shocking instances. His story reminds us that war is ugly and no side is pure. It's a compelling personal war story which is also an universal story.

Photography, combat photography, WW2, photos of every day life for an infantryman who took pictures when he wasn't firing his weapon. Many interviews, many present day return visits. Excellent.

"UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" (2016 release; 79 min.) is a documentary of WWII veteran and photographer Tony Vaccaro. As the documentary opens, we get some grainy footage and pictures of the D Day invasion, Omaha Beach in particular. We then go back in time, and get to understand how Tony Vaccaro got to that point, and started taking thousands upon thousands of WWII pictures on his sturdy little camera, only to then abandon them for fifty years after the end of the war. At this point, we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the 'plot' would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it plays plays out. Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from documentarian Max Lewkowicz. Here he brings us the story that few will be familiar with, unless you are a WWII journalism expert. The documentary achieves several things: first, and very deservedly, it shines the spotlight on Vaccaro, who himself provides the main commentary (the movie essentially retraces the 2 year trek Vaccaro and his division did from the beaches of Normandy to close the Berlin). Second, the movie examines the ethical issues of war time photography. On a number of occasions, Vaccaro expresses doubts whether it is right for him to take certain pictures of certain situation. It makes for compelling viewing. Third, then there are the pictures themselves, so many of them being of extraordinary quality, it is absolutely amazing to see, now 7 decades later. All the while, the movie hums along, and before you know it, we reach the end already, seemingly far too quickly. I recently stumbled upon this movie while surfing on HBO on Demand. So glad I took a flyer on this! If you have any interest in WWII, do yourself a favor and watch this movie, you'll thank me later. "UNDERFIRE" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro