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Throughout, the film interweaves congressional action on that resolution with the views of Young's life that followed from its passage. The complicating result, in two timelines, is that Body of War is at least as much about politics, indeed about history, as it is about Young's physical and emotional travails. Mercilessly, the film flaunts quotation after quotation from congressional speeches in that debate--missing no chance to cite parrotings of White House phrases--and intersperses all this with scenes of Young's life since his return. Some of the senators and congressmen who objected to the resolution are also seen in that 2002 debate, but the soundtrack rings with "Aye" after each of the proponents.
We see Young's marriage--the groom in a wheelchair--and his married life, with his mother much present and helpful. (We rarely see his stepfather, who, oddly enough, is almost a cartoon of a satisfied gung-ho type.) The difficulties of the newlyweds' sex life are discussed in detail by Young. But despite those details, sex is not mentioned when, after a time, the couple separate. Young, an intelligent, aware, unillusioned man, is now active--as far as that word can apply--in movements against the war.
Thus the film's intent is to braid two historical elements: political action to start a war and some of the less publicized results. The theme is realized quite simply at the end, when Young visits Senator Byrd in his office and the old senator says that the proudest moment in his public life is his vote against that resolution. The film's last shot is of the two men moving down a grand hall away from us, Byrd walking, Young wheeling along next to him. There is no originality in either segment of the theme: unfortunately, they are constants. But the cinematic intertwining gives them special size and ache.
