On Veterans Day, HBO unscrambles its premium signal so that anybody can see and hear this documentary, inspired by a series of articles on the Times’ op-ed page. We hear what ten different soldiers wrote home to their families, in ten different states, shortly before they were killed. Bill Couturié, whose Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam won an Emmy and whose Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt won an Oscar, directs with an austere minimum of fuss, as if he were Mathew Brady. Also to be available as a book and a DVD, with proceeds to benefit the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq
HBO.
Thursday, November 11, 9 to 10 P.M.

Related:

• Archive: “Television”
• Table of Contents: Nov 15, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!