Films are not just a reflection of our society. They are a mode of communication that also provides direction on how the population should think about itself.

Regarding the War in Iraq, Hollywood has broken things down into two distinct camps.

1) Prior to The Surge, American Soldiers were ruthless, torturing barbarians unleashed by a corrupt and brutal Government (search for the film Redacted for the best example of this line of thinking).

2) Following The Surge in 2007, Hollywood couldn't portray soldiers as negatively since we were "winning" and the death toll was declining. Film makers quickly switched to presenting American vets returning from the battlefield. These veterans are all shown as despondent, confused, probable substance abusers and potential psychopaths. (such as In the Valley of Elah (2007) & The Torturer (2008)) No one escapes Iraq without PTSD.

While PTSD certainly exists and soldiers have come back with all manner of difficult problems to overcome, Hollywood seems compelled to only show the ugly side of their service. No films show heroic deeds. No films showing the men and women of valor doing their duty. Certainly no films showing the brutal nature of the enemy they were facing or the obscene and violent culture our service people were forced to confront.

Hollywood spent the first few years of the war undermining the troops. The war turns and things get better - do they go to spending their resources portraying soldiers as heroes who have served with honor? Nope. Since 2007 we have had a continual flow of messed-up, used-up, potential psychos/drunks suffering like rape victims with crew-cuts.

This film shows Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) who has just returned from IraqMontgomery suffers from the injuries he obtain from a IED and is simply waiting for his enlistment to run out. He is put to work on a Casualty Notification Team, even though he has no experience telling people their family member is dead. He is teamed with the more experienced Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson). Stone is, of course, a former drunk.

Montgomery falls for one of the widows, Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton). The widow Pitterson. Pitterson. Pitterson = pity = sympathy. Heck, why not just name the character Olive Branch and call it a day?

In short, they're all screwed up. Everyone's moral compass is broken. It's all misery and despondency back home.

The film itself is not half bad. There's good performances by Foster and Harrelson and they make for an interesting pairing. The issue here is that the film is thick with self-importance. Every moment seems loaded with a "this is heavy stuff" vibe that simply kills the production. Instead of simply being dramatic, the film want you to know its being dramatic and overplays its hand.

The other issue is that this is just another in the line of films that is essentially a slap in the face of our returning vets. If film makers would have spent any time at all presenting the war outside of an Abu Ghraib-esque light, movies like these would be easier to swallow. Given the string of Iraq War movies and what they are saying about our troops? This seems to be just another lump of agitprop against the military.



Related Reviews:
Ben Foster movies
30 Days of Night (2007)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Christianity Today
Meet in the Lobby



Click here to buy your copy of
You Are What You See:
Watching Movies Through a Christian Lens

Labels: Ben Foster, film, Jena Malone, movie review, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson

A pair of astronauts, Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Bower (Ben Foster) wake from hibernation to find they are wrought with amnesia and their big ship is out of commission. Bower heads out to to recon the situation and finds creepy aliens are doing what creepy alien do -namely eating nameless astronaut guys in front of named astronaut guys. Of course there are the obligatory moments of peril as the aliens hunt down aforementioned nameless astro-fodder with the expected sanguinary results.

"Obligatory" and "expected" are two words that can be applied to most aspects of this film. There is precious little that is unique to this production. Overall, this is a patchwork of other films and stories all laced together into an unsatisfying whole. The average viewer will most likely have the sneaky suspicion they have seen this scene or that event before - this is because they have.

The film doesn't advance the genre and it doesn't offer an inventive script. If you are going to spend your time sitting in front of a sci-fi flick, I suggest going back to the basics (Alien, Stalker, The Lathe of Heaven, etc.) instead of wadding through this mish-mash of a genre rehash.




Related Reviews:
Ben Foster movies
X-Men: the Last Stand (2006)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
The Final Girl
The L.A. Times

Labels: Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, film, movie review, science fiction

This is a very strong trailer. It hits on all the right emotional chords without being too melodramatic. As somber as this is, the ad does a very good job of selling. The music is a nice touch.

The film itself? As is the case with any film about the military over the past forty years, it all depends on how seriously they take it. It is hard to imagine a film maker being irresponsible or clumsily political while dealing with this kind of topic - but would you really be surprised if they were?

This does look good, but it does strike me that with only a few exceptions like The Hurt Locker, film makers can only bring themselves to discuss our soldiers only by focusing on them after they come home, dead or alive (In the Valley of Elah, Home of the Brave, Cost of a Soul, Taking Chance, Grace Is Gone, Stop-Loss, The Lucky Ones, Brothers). No investigation on what our men and women are seeing "over there". No mention of the absolute depraved condition of the Muslim world or the struggling people looking for freedom. No discussion of if what we've been doing all this time has been worth it or why we've been doing it. We just get a line of films showing our men and women in uniform racked with guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder, maimed or dead.

By avoiding the war and the moral questions involved in its execution, film makers can continue to undermine our troops. The entertainment industry was comfortable painting our soldiers as barbarians while the Iraq War was at its height. Now, we're seeing that the industry has changed from attacking our men by slander to attacking them with sympathy. What we have is film makers holding up returning soldiers (the same that were maligned for years) and saying to the world "look at what we've done to these poor souls." Instead of identifying them as returning heroes, it seems Hollywood is more satisfied to cite them as pitiable victims.

It is a good thing to talk about our men and women in uniform and discuss the issues they are faced with. It is important that we give them the context they deserve and be very careful about reducing them to mere props.






Screenwriters: Oren Moverman (I'm Not There) and Alessandro Camon (The Bandit K.)
Director: Oren Moverman
Actors: Ben Foster (Hostage), Jena Malone (The Ruins), Woody Harrelson (2012), Steve Buscemi (Armageddon), Eamonn Walker (Cadillac Records) and Samantha Morton (Minority Report)

Labels: Ben Foster, Eamonn Walker, film, Jena Malone, movie trailer, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson

I'm conflicted - I was very impressed with Christian Alvart's Antikörper, so having him at the helm is a good sign.

But then there's Dennis Quaid - not exactly a paragon of quality cinema.

Looking at this it appears to be yet another descendant of Alien with a little Sunshine tossed in for good measure. Alvart successfully reworked the Silence of the Lambs concept previously, it is possible he's got something up his sleeve in this case as well.

But then there's that lingering issue of Quaid.




Screenwriter: Travis Milloy
Director: Christian Alvart (Antikörper)
Actors: Ben Foster (30 Days of Night), Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point), Cam Gigandet (Twilight) and Antje Traue (Berlin by the Sea)

Labels: Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Dennis Quaid, film, movie trailer