The Way We Get By

SILVERDOCS Coverage: "The Way We Get By" Review

Mike Riggs, Washington City Paper

“This one will leave you breathless.”

The real standout in this selection is The Way We Get By, which follows Bill Knight, Joan Gaudet, and Jerry Mundy, three retired residents of Bangor, Maine, who have met every incoming flight from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. This one will leave you breathless: The scene in which a gangly, just-out-of-high-school private breaks out of line to wrap his arms around Joan and weep on her shoulder; the shots of Bill's farmhouse, which is nearly unlivable from years of neglect following his wife's death; a shellshocked soldier's confession that an empty airport would only "add to the confusion" of having been in Iraq. Even viewers with a primal hatred for proponents of the military will find themselves crying over Bill's answer when the producer asks him about greeting the troops. Blinking away tears, he says, "I've outlived my usefulness. My life doesn't mean much to me, but if I can make it mean something to somebody else, that's a worthy endeavor."