Lioness

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***

The first half of Lioness, co-directors' Meg McLagan's and Daria Sommers' debut, focuses on the arcane circumstances that brought the first unit of female combat fighters (dubbed "Team Lioness") together. Since the Iraq invasion has never been officially declared a war, there are technically no combat missions being fought there. Ergo, female soldiers can be placed on the frontlines of any engagement despite it presently being illegal for them to serve in combat situations. The Marines' missions focus on following up on gathered intelligence routing out insurgents and terrorist cells, which are typically run out of private residences. Because male American soldiers frisking Muslim women in burkas could conceivably lead to a jihad that would consume the entire Arabian desert, female soldiers (none of whom speak Farsi) were dispatched to placate the locals.

But because the Lioness team members all came from the Army and were never trained in the Marines' weaponry, strategy or vernacular there were many occasions when the women were abandoned during shootouts or were nearly left behind in villages without an operational vehicle or map. Watching this documentary one understands why the the Bush administration's 'women in the military' meme was Jessica Lynch and not Team Lioness. Months after returning from their tours, the women still express deep resentment at the unnecessary dangers they faced due to what amounted to a poorly organized propaganda effort.

There is a red-flag moment in this otherwise clear-eyed (though nightmarish) presentation of events, that goes completely unaddressed. When the Army command received the request from the Marines for Lionesses to be installed in their squads, the commanding officer quickly responded that she wouldn't send any woman alone into that situation, but would happily send two at a time. No further prodding comes from the film-makers about the threat of in-house rape women face while serving their country -- despite the fact that it's clearly the initial reaction from their Commanding Officer. (Nor is the subject of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" broached, even though some of these women could set off my grandmother's gaydar.)

But the most galling moment in the film is provided by the generally innocuous History Channel. The women gather to watch an episode dedicated to one of their engagements, a day that ended in an hours-long gunfight with a group of insurgents. But the Lioness' participation has been completely whitewashed from the episode -- at times even employing pan and scan to remove their images from the film. Pan and scan!

The second half of the film focuses on the Lionesses reintegration into society. Many of them are poor and joined the military to either pay for college or as the only promising ticket out of town. It's refreshing to see a documentary about military history that doesn't attempt to ennoble what is for many people an economic necessity. Their pragmatism is met with a public denial of their existence and post-traumatic stress diagnoses. In one quietly devastating scene a field mechanic discusses her situation with her Vietnam veteran uncle. Since they both have severe sleep disorders they spend many late nights in the garage in conversation that often tacks to the morbid side. Ultimately both profess that most nights they find themselves wishing they could trade places with the people who died in combat.

Lioness is a hard-earned (and well-deserved) document of the first frontline combat effort fought by women, as well as a testament to how quickly and cruelly people can be discarded when they no longer suit the objectives of the institutions they serve. But the film's careful adherence to remaining intimate with its subjects (no rows of medals are ever presented and the only photographs of the women in their uniforms are candid pictures taken by friends and family) makes it less a contribution to the 'historical canon' of non-fiction storytelling and more a snapshot of the complexities soldiers face returning home.

DVD extras include: A featurette: "The Changing Role of Women in the Military", deleted scenes, trailer and film-maker biographies.