The CIRCLE Buzz

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The Buzz.

What does the title mean?
"Each name is preceded (on the west wall of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C.) or followed (on the east wall) by one of two symbols: a diamond or a cross. The diamond symbol denotes that the serviceman's or servicewoman's death was confirmed. The approximately 1,300 men who names are designated by the cross symbol were either missing or prisoners at the end of the war and remain missing or unaccounted for.

"In the event a serviceman's remains are returned or he is otherwise accounted for, the diamond symbol will be superimposed over the cross. If a man returns alive, a circle, as s symbol of life, will be inscribed around the cross. As of this time, there are no circles on the wall."
--Statement at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C.

What the critics are saying...
First, let me congratulate you and your colleagues on your dedication to produce a movie that addresses the issue of the Vietnam POW. Some may question the relevance of this issue today, but I consider it especially important now. As a psychologist, I am concerned about the veterans who remain psychological prisoners of their combat experiences, no matter if it's World War II, the Vietnam War, or the War in Iraq. They may not be physically imprisoned, but their
emotional wounds have cut them off from friends, family, and fulfilling lives just as completely as actual cages. I wonder how many service men and women of today are feeling just as trapped psychologically as the character in the movie. So, I see the cage as a metaphor for all the ways that veterans feel isolated, forgotten, abandoned, and alienated.

Second, the crucial point of the movie's plot hinges on the power of dissociative imagination as a coping mechanism. There are many accounts of prisoners engaging in many hours of fantasy and wish fulfillment by envisioning their returns to home, friends, and family. I found that portrayal in the movie to be psychologically accurate. Such dissociation can actually be adaptive because it maintains a sense of hope and enhances feelings of resolve.
--Dr. Lennie Echterling, Ph.D., Director of Counseling Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Telling Vietnam story with "truth," honor (LaGrange Daily News, July 6, 2007): While Steven Earl-Edwards was producing his film, A CIRCLE ON THE CROSS, he made a promise to a group of Vietnam veterans that he would tell their story with truth and honor. Now, five years later, he is confident he has made good on that promise. To read more, download the newspaper clipping. Steven Earl at the Wall

Cast, crew work to get film's message out. (LaGrange Daily News, August 11, 2002): The scene is simple enough. Headphones cradle the director's ears as he nods or shakes his head in response to each image on the screen. As he watches the scene being shot a half dozen others sit around the semicircular television area, which is littered with water bottles and packs of cigarettes. But behind the simplicities, executive producer Cheryl Elliott says there has been air of magic. To read more, download the newspaper clipping.

Vietnam Memorial prompted film's title. (LaGrange Daily News, August 11, 2002): White, all-capital lettering glimmers off its dark granite backdrop. Overall 58,229 names span the almost 20-year-old Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., each name separated only by a small dot. To read more, download the newspaper clipping.