Three years ago, Academy Award-winning director and UCLA alumnus Terry Sanders spent some time working on his latest documentary “Fighting For Life” in a place called Mortaritaville. But this was no lighthearted spoof on Jimmy Buffett’s lazy paradise, Margaritaville.
In fact, the irony of the name could not be greater. Mortar-itaville is in the heart of Iraq, where the violence was so great from so much mortar fire, wounded Iraqi and Americans constantly flowed in for the four days Sanders and his crew filmed at the area’s hospital.
“The wounded had wonderful dignity and courage to them,” said Sanders. “We saw their determination to get well, to bounce back. Everything felt was real, there was nothing staged or rehearsed. It was all real life as it happened.”
The idea behind “Fighting For Life” came to life in 2004, when Sanders received a phone call from a mother of a student at Uniformed Services University ““ the West Point of military medicine schools. USU was rapidly losing funding and was threatening to close down permanently, despite its excellent reputation.
“When I went there, I found that the school was wonderful ““ it was first-rate with mature students and a faculty dedicated to the success of its students,” Sanders said. “I decided to do a film that would explore why anyone would want to close the school, which was excellent and needed.”
But then, long after President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner had been taken down, the effects of the Iraq War forced Sanders to shift his original intent slightly to the role of military medicine in a time of war. So he took his crew overseas ““ first to a regional medical center in Germany, where many wounded soldiers came in from Iraq.
“It was pretty horrendous,” Sanders said. “There was a stream of wounded coming in by plane around the clock. … I was struck by the enormity, the numbers of wounded. … If there’s a real purpose (in the film), it’s to remind people of the wounded, and to remind that, hey, we’re responsible too.”
Despite the public’s anti-war stance, and his own personal opinions on the war, Sanders strove to make a politically unbiased film.
“I found that the soldiers themselves said, “˜I don’t do politics,'” said Sanders. “They’re there for their buddies, for the people. Of course the war’s a fiasco, but it gave me a perspective on what kind of fiasco it is when you’re standing in the middle of the Sunni Triangle and half the people being treated are Iraqis. … You feel sorry for everybody.”
Portraying this drama and devastation firsthand became Sanders’ main goal. Having received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in film from UCLA in 1954 and 1967, respectively, he is aware of what makes for good drama. Sanders also credits his alma mater with giving him a crucial jumping-off point, and he praised the freedom the school gave to students ““ encouraging them to get out into the world and start filming with a trial-by-fire mindset.
But even before he came to UCLA, Sanders had a piqued interest in U.S. military endeavors because American involvement in world wars have been prominent throughout his entire life. That interest would later influence his cinematic career choices, such as “Fighting for Life.”
“A Time Out of War,” a short film about the Civil War, earned Sanders and his filmmaking brother Denis with an Oscar in 1955.
“I’ve always liked stories about war,” Sanders said. “”˜Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories,’ “˜The Naked and the Dead.’ … They’re obviously very dramatic subjects for film.”
The experience of filming smack in the middle of a violent war zone is usually reserved for news crews kept at a relatively safe distance, but Sanders and his crew were given unlimited access to the medical facilities in Iraq. His elevated status as an Oscar winner helped.
While there were certain privacy laws to follow, Sanders said he had “complete creative freedom. … It was all up to me. No one from the Department of Defense or from the school saw the film until it was over.”
While Sanders was able to stretch his creative muscle in “Fighting for Life,” released earlier this year, the film is still a true documentary and stays away from the fictitious side of the war in Iraq that has been met with relative indifference by moviegoers thus far.
Perhaps the fact that the war in Iraq is still raging makes its horrors too fresh to be fictionally exploited by Hollywood, as audiences appear not yet ready to commercially digest such real violence while munching on popcorn in a movie theater.
“I think people are terribly disturbed by the Iraq War,” Sanders said. “Their solution is to not want to think about it ““ it’s too painful. It’s so confusing, and there’s been so much purposeful confusion generated, that it doesn’t make for good drama.”
Sanders obviously feels differently than the contemporary audience, but his interest in war is exactly what has brought him to this turning point as a filmmaker.
“I’m fascinated with war,” Sanders said. “And with avoiding it.”