I have to admit, I’ve been a little leery of Iraq War documentaries ever since I saw the film Gunner Palace. What was supposed to be a gripping and honest portrayal of things American troops experience every day, turned out to be both overdramatic and strangely light-hearted as it followed troops goofing off and laughing at inside jokes. To me it didn’t have a point, and it just reeked of opportunism. Well now Focus Features have picked up another similar movie for distribution called The Ground Truth.

Directed by Patricia Foulkrod, the movie looks to be a slightly more “grounded” (pun intended) look at the reality of war, and how it affects the soldiers and their families. The only drawback with this (and a lot of Iraq War films) is that they don’t follow any particular story, and instead present a collection of related interviews which I generally find less compelling. The movie will hit select cities on September 15th, but what’s unique about the release of this film is that the DVD will hit stores only 11 days later, on September 26th. I know theatre owners are worried about the shrinking DVD release window, but I’d love to see it happen for more documentaries since they very rarely get a wide theatrical release in the first place.

You can watch the trailer for The Ground Truth over at Apple now, or read more at the film’s official site (linked below).

Watch the trailer on Apple

The Ground Truth Official Site