Presented in song, dance, drama and comedy, the anti-war film FTA is a record of the tour performed before American GIs during the Vietnam War. It bluntly addressed the policies behind U.S. involvement in southeast Asia and featured material created by GIs in their off-the-base coffee houses and newspapers. FTA is the result of over 78 hours of film, shot by a 15-member crew touring with the cast who played off-base to over 64,000 GIs in the U.S. and the Pacific. Moderator Stone called the film “…the highest form of freedom of expression I’ve seen in a long, long time.” FTA was pulled from distribution after only a week due to pressure from the Nixon White House.
“Looking at it now, it’s no wonder,” said FTA star and producer Jane Fonda. “Think of all the propaganda that goes on about how those of us who opposed the war were anti-troops. When you see thousands of guys and women with their fists in the air who are active duty military personnel, it’s a different slant on things. The war was still going on when the film came out.”
Parker recalled that the rationale used to explain FTA’s shelving was that “the film wasn’t making money” when in fact it had opened to rave reviews in large theatres in New York; Boston, and had played during the Democratic National Convention in Miami.
The irony lies in the fact that Parker believes that years later her anti-war film actually helped the military sell this new war to the public, by using what they learned through FTA to change their strategies. “They seem to have learned a lot. They studied FTA very carefully, it’s quite clear. They may have banned it from the American people but they wouldn’t now think of saying some of the things that the officers said to the ordinary GIs in the film. There was a period where the armed forces were in shambles. They just didn’t know which was what and there was a lot of thinking that went into how to market a war.”
