Nearly 50 years ago, a documentary ran for a week in New York before it was pulled from theaters and “poof, disappeared,” as Jane Fonda described it recently.
Now you can see the 1972 film – starring Fonda and her “Klute” co-star Donald Sutherland – at Detroit’s Cinema Lamont virtual screening room.
“F.T.A.” chronicles a 1971 variety show that toured southeast Asia with Fonda, Sutherland, and a group of performers who also were anti-Vietnam War activists. It was created as an alternative to the USO tours by Bob Hope, who supported the U.S. government’s involvement in the conflict.
The movie’s title – which could mean “Free the Army” or a version with profanity – is a variation on an Army recruitment slogan, “Fun, Travel, Adventure.” Although the military didn’t want soldiers to see the show, director Francine Parker laced it with footage of enlisted men and women expressing their own objections to the war.
