Of all these war shots I
have seen, the one I
like the most is a
picture he took of two
G.I.s in a clearing
under a tree. One is
sitting on an upended
crate, cigarette in
hand, towel draped
over his t-shirt, helmet
at his feet; the other is
giving him a
haircut. (“Joe Meccia
doing cutting, Joe Ely in
chair”) Both of them are smiling, as if they take shy pleasure in posing for the picture. I have never seen a moment like this in a
war movie. I imagine if I were ever to have talked with my father, he would have spoken of other such moments as he tried to convey what it meant to have gone off to war. And in that quiet conversation I might have discovered something about men that I have never yet managed to learn from a movie.

AUDIO