The P.O.W.

Staged in deliberate defiance of commercial studio conventions, this raw, free-ranging assault on the Nixon administration and the war was realized on a shoestring budget using only a noisy 16mm Bolex camera and Korean War-era surplus Kodak film stock. The result was a landmark of American neo-realism that retains its bite today.

The story charts the painful homecoming of Howie Kaufman, a decent young man drafted into Vietnam who returns home permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Beginning with his dehumanizing discharge from a VA hospital, The P.O.W. follows Howie’s desperate attempts to navigate an alienated middle-class world.

Upon release, the film ignited immediate controversy and divided critics, but standout champions recognized its daring impact—most notably The New York Times, which praised the film under the headline "Impressive Directorial Debut." It concluded with, “If I have made it sound like a triumph of film maker’s strategy, that’s the kind of movie The P.O.W. is. You don’t go out smiling from a movie about a paraplegic. But you may go out admiring the skill, the tact, the instincts of a new director who has made an impressive debut.”

More than five decades later, the passage of time has only sharpened the urgency of Philip Dossick’s singular vision. Bringing together both the original novel and the shooting script, this new edition preserves a rare artifact of independent cinema—born of raw creative conviction, artistic defiance, and a shared passion that remains vital, biting, and alive to this day.