Wow, what a powerful real life drama. This is an amazing story. It’s a genuine saga of life and death, friendship and betrayal, religion and war. The tale of ordinary people willing to risk their freedoms for their truths. Back in 1971 with the Vietnam War dividing America and taking the lives of many young men from both countries, a group of anti-war protesters (including 4 Catholic priests, 22 Catholic laypeople and 1 Lutheran minister) take action. The FBI catches wind of their plans and the whole debacle ends up in a 63 day court battle in which the war itself seems to be on trial.

The production value of the documentary feels raw and unfinished. To punctuate segments, it simply fades to black and then fades from black. Pleasantly absent are the questions and comments of the filmmakers, rather, some 30 years later members of the 28 reflect and retell. Presented in a straight forward manner, the doc has three faults: 1) In the retelling of the timeline, it leaves out the fact that after the arrest, apparently the 28 were out on bail. The omission makes for some confusion. 2) Apparently there was another FBI building penetration that resulted in missing Federal documents in Media, Pennsylvania. References to this event are muddy and confusing. Aside from the draft records, are the mentioned missing documents from Media or from Camden? (Admittedly, the name of the town being “Media” might have added to the problem). 3) Some of the captions, especially near the end, run too quickly from the screen.

That said, the powerful content and girth of the production both far outweigh these faults.

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