Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and a former bombardier in World War II, served as an advisor to the filmmakers.

The film is composed of candid interviews with the veterans, who marched eagerly to defend their country in 1944, 1966, 1991, or 2003 only to return conflicted by the atrocities they saw and participated in, and questioning what true service to your country really means, The juxtaposition of these searing interviews with jarring on-the-ground archival footage exposes the brutality of combat, and honors the bravery not only of those who fight, but those who fight for change.

The opening was coordinated with an event called "A National Day of Conversation",[5] in which combat veterans, many of them members of VFP, hosted question and answer sessions with audiences.

From Daily Variety :"Skillfully interweaving the stories of five different servicemen from four different conflicts, "The Good Soldier" is a surprisingly nondoctrinaire docu about anti-war veterans that marches to its own drummer.

Kam Williams wrote: "co-directors Lexy Lovell and Michael Uys deserve a 21-gun salute for fashioning a sobering antidote to all that patriotic claptrap about serving God, country and apple pie..."[8] Nicolas Rapold in Time Out New York called it "deeply moving,"[9] and Aaron Hillis of The Village Voice described the film as "shocking and affecting".

"[15] On Saturday November 21, 2009 "The Good Soldier" won the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary from the jury at the Starz Denver Film Festival.

[19] Documentary Magazine wrote about the film in a feature article titled "War Stories: The Good Soldier examines the cost of combat.