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May 20, 2021 Web Exclusive By Dustin Krcatovich

That the Vietnam War was broadly protested in the United States is not news; hell, Boomers haven’t shut up about it for 50 years. However, it’s less acknowledged just how unpopular the war was among active troops, or how widespread resistance was on military bases and ships. Not to downplay the power of civilian protest, but the unwillingness of G.I.s to fight the war probably had a lot more to do with how it ended than any student march.

To show support, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and the rest of the cast of F.T.A. (or ‘Fuck The Army’, a play on the old Army slogan ‘Fun, Travel & Adventure’) traveled to bases across the U.S. and Southeast Asia doing a “political vaudeville” show for active antiwar servicepeople. This documentary about the tour, directed by Francine Parker, captures the trials and travails of the road (rejected Visas, pro-war audience agitators), but it also spends a lot of time showing the impacts of the war on those fighting it.

The Hollywood Millionaire Leftist is an old trope by now, and Fonda is perhaps the godmother of them all. Still, touring with the F.T.A. show was a truly risky career move for both her and Sutherland (the rest of the cast had a fair amount less traction to lose, though character actor Michael Alaimo is probably the only person to appear in both Doris Wishman films and Space Jam). Contrary to what Fox News might have you believe, radicalism is punished in Hollywood: whether it be the McCarthy witch trials or Michael Moore getting booed off the stage at the 2003 Oscars, Hollywood is neoliberal to its core. You can only go so far before you upset the boss’s bosses, and Sutherland and Fonda put their careers — quite possibly their lives — on the line for their ideals here.

F.T.A. didn’t ultimately cost either star much work throughout the 1970s, but maybe that’s because it didn’t get seen that much. Theaters were nervous about the controversial content, and the film was ultimately buried by its distributor. So it was that it didn’t get eyes when it needed them most (nor much since then).

Watching the stage show sections of F.T.A. now, they feel pretty anachronistic. The antiwar, antiracist, and feminist messages are still pertinent, but they’re delivered in over-the-top “theater kid”/showtune fashion; even the stately reading from Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun delivered by Sutherland is a bit too far inside the Actors Studio. Still, it’s not hard to see how it was gutsy in its time, and it’s a damn sight less corny than whatever Bob Hope was doing for the same target demographic.

More importantly, though, F.T.A.‘s intimate conversations with G.I.s are an essential time capsule, and make up for any dated song and dance. This is why one should still see F.T.A. now: it’s one thing for a Hollywood celebrity to speak clearly and carefully about the evils of war, but it’s another thing to be in the shit, dig your way out, and still care (and speak passionately about) what happens to others.

(www.kinolorber.com/product/fta-blu-ray)