To What Remains movie review

MOVIE TITLE: To What Remains

This touching documentary is in theaters on December 10, 2021, but the nationwide release begins on December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 21 minutes

IN A NUTSHELL:

TO WHAT REMAINS is the story of Project Recover, a small team of accomplished scientists, oceanographers, archaeologists, historians, researchers, and military veterans, who have dedicated their lives to scouring the depths of the ocean and the farthest corners of the earth, to search for, recover, and repatriate the remains of the more than 80,000 Americans missing in action since WWII.

In what one MIA family member aptly described as “looking for the smallest needle in the largest haystack,” Project Recover team members led by Dr. Pat Scannon, comb through military action reports to identify broad swaths of ocean and land where U.S. servicemen were killed over 75 years ago and execute onsite searches involving a combination of technology (sophisticated underwater drones) and painstaking manual labor (scuba dives and archaeological digs). The team travels to some of the most beautiful tropical locations in the world, where unimaginable atrocities once occurred.

While the search for a single crash site can require years of effort, the Project Recover team members are fueled by the sense of purpose that comes from identifying the remains of Americans who gave their lives in service, returning those remains to their proper home, and bringing closure to families who had nothing more than a picture on a mantle, vague memories passed down from prior generations and unanswered questions.

In breathtaking imagery filmed over several years and intimate interviews with Project Recover team members and MIA families, To What Remains takes viewers inside this emotional journey to honor our fallen servicemen, from the discovery of wreckage on the seafloor in the South Pacific, to the living room of a stunned family in middle America, to a well-deserved final resting place at home.

This touching documentary is directed by Chris Woods and written by Mark Monroe.

This powerful film took my breath away and brought many tears to my eyes.

To learn more and get involved in this incredible service to our fallen soldiers, go to www.projectrecover.org

THINGS I LIKED:

What a selfless work of love and respect it is to repatriate soldiers one has never known in order to bring closure and peace to families who were looking for answers about their lost loved ones.
Some gorgeous cinematography
The film focuses on the 200 American planes that were shot down during the Battle of Peleliu in Pelau in World War II.
We get to see some remarkable film footage from World War II.
We get to learn about some of the military missions former President George Herbert Walker Bush (the father) went on. Many people, especially younger Americans, have no idea he was a war hero.
The beautiful musical score perfectly captures feelings of sorrow, devastation, discovery, and triumph.
The film does a great job of providing various perspectives, including detailed explanations of the search missions, interviews, war footage, clips of families and fighter pilots trying to make sense of the stories that now have an ending. Most of the families were not even aware that someone was looking for their loved ones.
The “Greatest Generation”, indeed. It’s heartbreaking to see the loss of potential lives that could have been lived. We owe so much to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
We also get to see interviews with former Marines who flew fighter planes during the war. My step-father was a Marine. We are burying him on December 7, 2021, in a Veterans Memorial cemetery. We think he would be proud and honored to be buried on Pearl Harbor Day. My oldest son is currently serving in the military. My heart just breaks for mothers who have lost a son or daughter in battle.