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Comments & Reviews

Press Kit

Check out what people are saying about "I Wanted To Be A Man With A Gun."

For years, Farley met veterans of WWII who said they couldn’t remember the war, or didn’t want to. Then he found his star subjects, who seemed as though they’d been waiting all their lives to relive their experience in uniform. Please read the full article here,
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/william-farley-band-of-brothers-documentary-ww2

Outreach Plan

-Jonah Raskin, writer, professor emeritus at Sonoma State University, is the author of 14 books, including biographies of Jack London, Allen Ginsberg, and Abbie Hoffman.

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“I Wanted To Be A Man with a Gun” is a searing reminiscence of three “average” GI’s during WWII that will put the lie to the quaint notion that there are “good guys” and “bad guys.” Watching these decent fellows remember killing prisoners, and witnessing atrocities…should serve as a caution, that each of us, if we fail to monitor and control our darkest impulse, can become the monster we think we are hunting.  

-Peter Coyote, actor, writer, Zen Buddhist priest

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At long last, three World War II veterans break that rule of disengagement with brutal candor and shattering clarity in, “I Wanted to Be a Man with a Gun.” William Farley’s beautifully crafted documentary fuses the specific horrors of its subjects’ battle cries with the universal trauma of adolescents dispatched to kill into an unerringly timeless reckoning on the reality of war.

-Michael Fox, KQED Arts and Culture

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This is a masterpiece. We rarely, if ever, witness soldiers discovering their real culpability and wounded emotions regarding what they did in combat. “I Wanted To Be A Man With A Gun” is an eye-opening portrait of the cost of war on those who are asked to fight in our name. 

-Sean Kilcoyne, U.S. Marine Corps & Vietnam Veteran

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William Farley’s film provides a unique and moving perspective on the experience of war and the scars it leaves on those who participate. We need more truth telling about the evil of war, and “I Wanted To Be A Man With A Gun” forces us to look at this legacy with open eyes.

-Judith Ehrlich, Director & Oscar nominee;

-Daniel Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man in America

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Joining the pantheon of classic anti-war movies is the documentary I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN. Writer/director William Farley’s three WWII soldiers pour out their souls to Farley’s camera, revealing how the process of battle dehumanized them, and haunted them throughout the rest of their lives.  Farley’s trio of survivors have given us this masterpiece of truth-telling!

-Rick Schmidt, Filmmaker and author, Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices 

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“I Wanted To Be A Man With A Gun” is riveting, moving and profound. It shows the great truth that war is not glamorous, but brutal and ugly.

-Lucy Lang Day, Author, Married at Fourteen: A True Story

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I rank “A Man With A Gun”, around the order of magnitude of “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Best Years of Our Lives”.

-Gary Gach, Author, Pause Breathe Smile: Awakening Mindfulness When Meditation Is Not Enough

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After viewing the war veterans in “I Wanted To Be A Man With A Gun,” I understood for the first time my father  a WWII combat veteran had lost his ability to express his deeper feelings as a consequence of what he experienced on the battlefield. 

-Bran Newsham, Author, Take Me With You

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To hear directly from three ordinary Joe’s who served in the front lines during WW2 is very moving - and enlightening. They know what they’re about to say might not put them in the best light - but they go ahead and say it anyway. 

-Len Nathan, preview audience participant

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