As we've already seen, many veterans who saw this film were impressed with the realism shown on screen, and the sincerity of the message. It's an incredibly powerful film that stays with you for a long time after the final credits roll. However, we've also seen that it was briefly too much for a seasoned military historian, who had to pause his viewing to recover from what he'd just seen.
That was also true for some of the veterans invited to see it; especially those who'd lived through the real-life conflict. Many old soldiers suffer from flashbacks and post-traumatic stress, and the film was so realistic that it triggered some of those symptoms. The Department of Veterans Affairs set up a special free-call telephone numbers for veterans to phone if they found themselves feeling anxious or upset after watching the movie.