Shadows of Honor
“Shadows of Honor” is about Anthony, a young man who runs a laundromat. His father had recently died and we get the sense Anthony is naive and pays no attention to consequence – possibly a way of dealing with his father’s death. These homeless veterans come into the laundromat for some food from the community. However, there’s a catch, they all served with his father in war. A storm hits the area and Anthony allows them to stay the night for shelter. In the process of this, he gets to know each of them to an extent. Each war veteran has their own story. We slowly witness Anthony coming to terms with his arrogance, especially when he encounters a life or death situation.
What I really liked about this short film is the originality of it. It’s not very often that you get to watch a film about somebody’s old battle-buddies encounter their children. The setting of a laundromat seemed to be perfect for the encounter as it’s small and a lot of locals tend to use, so the likelihood of their meeting seems more possible than if it was anywhere else. The small space they had really forces them to get to know one another.
Another thing I really appreciated was how each veteran had a voice and really stood out with their personalities. Each one represented the ugly side of war and to be honest, it was quite eye-opening. Each of the actors and the actress who played the veterans felt authentic and gave each one a unique voice. Their experiences felt authentic and for all I know they were based on actual events. Who knows? The performance Anthony does is nicely done as well. Although his arrogance and anger has been done before, I actually believed his performance and was convinced he was in denial and emotionless from his father’s death.
This short film handles PTSD in a really interesting way. There’s a really cool sequence as one of the veterans stares into the washer and the images of war appear in the center of his reflection. The sequence of war in the washer is just one example. There are other moments when thunder strikes and it actually sounds like bombs going off in the distance as well. I never thought of thunderstorms to be a trigger for PTSD, but after watching this, it actually makes sense that they would be. The sound effects of rain pattering reminds me of those moments in war films where soldiers sit in silence in the rain, like in “Saving Private Ryan”.
Overall I enjoyed the message this short was trying to say and would recommend this to anybody who knows of people have served.
