Capturing war within the military over Vietnam

David Zeiger's sobering documentary ``Sir! No Sir!" recounts the struggles of the men and women who audaciously challenged the American government and its reasons for remaining in Southeast Asia for so long. The movie features astounding archival footage: news reports, documentary interviews, and combat footage (the film opens with the jarring, slowed-down image of a village bombing campaign). It also catches up with dozens of antiwar veterans who recall their involvement with the GI Movement. They share crisp memories of their awakenings, their actions, and the government's reactions.

A Navy nurse was arrested after she flew a plane over military bases in San Francisco that dropped antiwar leaflets, two black soldiers were given eight to 10 years for attempting to organize a discussion group that asked whether black soldiers should be participating in the war, and hundreds of other soldiers were jailed for any number of reasons. Decades later, the veterans Zeiger talks to still seem completely astonished, shell-shocked as it were, by both the confusing scope of the war itself and by their ability to resist it.

As it happens, Zeiger was part of the Movement, too. He worked as a civilian in one of the many antiwar coffee shops that sprang up on military bases around the country and served as havens for dissenting soldiers. (His was the Oleo Strut in Killeen, Texas.) Zeiger helped put together demonstrations in the 1960s and '70s, and his participation affords ``Sir! No Sir!" an authenticity that's both personal and political. He also has such awesome access to so many people and so many facets of the war that it warps the structure of his movie and makes it hard to absorb.