Worst title of the year but a very good movie. Very. I was completely engrossed. I'm sort of surprised it's floundering at the the box office but maybe Americans are fed up with all things war. Though it's not really a war movie, it's more about family and government and mental health...I'm not describing it well. It's sort of what would happen if Michael Moore and John Grisham collaborated on an episode of a CSI episode. The story focuses on the murder of a Marine on US soil. Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron are all in it and are all excellent. There's a heart-breaking scene where Sarandon views the remains of her sons body and the camera stays on her face the whole time. She asks,"Is that all there is?" I keep thinking of that scene. There were only three people in the the theatre, me and two Marines. It's always strange watching war movies in a room with Marines.
PS The Valley of Elah is the name of the Valley where David and Goliath fight. Tommy Lee Jones plays David. It's an appropriate title but I don't think it's helping to sell tickets.
1 comment:
The movie was brilliant.
The over-the-top closing scene where Tommy Lee Jones duct-tapes a flag upside down didn't ruin the movie for me.
It just tainted it a bit.
Otherwise, it's the best Paul Haggis ever. And you're right — the movie doesn't even examine the politics of the Iraq war — it's about one soldier who goes crooked in the U.S.A. So I don't think people should be afraid of political controversy, if they can't handle those issues in movies.
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