BOMB HARVEST
Director: Kim Mordaunt Documentary
Reviewed by WENDY RAWADY
Bomb Harvest is a real eye-opener.
Bomb Harvest is an Australian Made documentary, directed by Kim Mordaunt, exploring the little publicised problems 35 years after the massed US bombing of Laos. It is an exellent doco that ticks all the boxes of information - the story of the “secret war” in Laos as a component of the Vietnam conflict; characters - Aussie Bomb Disposal expert, Laith Stevens; and very beautiful, perennially anxious children who perilously make a living from selling the bombs for scrap metal.
Laith Stevens is, undoubtedly, a hero, as I am sure his 2 brothers, engaged in the same job, are. My heart goes out to their mother! Laith himself, is shown as a straight-talking, cussing and can-do style of Australian, cutting through the crap and saving lives. The children are shown at school and at play and there are recreations (with dummy ammo) of the digging trips in the jungles where they search for metal. At school, their teacher begs them to stop this, but the population of Laos, uncompensated for their peripheral involvement in the Vietnam conflict, is almost a subsistence community. Every cent counts.
It seems that the only way to fix the problem of millions of unexploded bombs littering the countryside, is to evacuate regions one at a time, explode the lot, clear out the chemicals and metals pollution and then resettle the population. However, this is impossible, and the place is being cleaned up one bomb at the time, unless, of course, some farmer explodes bombs accidentally while preparing for crop sowing.
That the documentary is effective is evidence by the fact that at the end of it I was outraged, and cannot believe that the USA has not learnt a lesson. You just cannot wreck someone else’s land in the name of ‘freedom’ as the definition of the term is a slippery one. The domino theory was proven to be a crock, and Mordaunt skilfully interweaves the historical, archival and illustrative together in a clear, non-gimmicky storyline.
There is also a strong sense of humour and what does come through quite powerfully is the attachment that Aussies have for the South-East Asian region which is reciprocated by the locals. I am hoping that the USA leaves this region to the Aussies who seem to be able to conduct Footy & BBQ diplomacy to solve issues rather than enter a conflict. Let’s hope that continues! Lath Stevens is a great example of this.