I saw a movie this weekend (Netflix) called IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH. It starred Tommy Lee Jones as the father, Susan Sarandon as the mother, and Charlize Theron as the detective among a stellar cast. I gave this movie five (5) stars, my best ever because it was an amazing movie that somehow touched me.
A young soldier returns from Iraq and then goes missing. His many body parts are discovered in a field close to his army base. His father, a career army man (retired) wants some answers and the story begins.
The army soldiers are all young and all have seen horrific action in Iraq. I think my experiences with varied personalities in the Air Force at the age of 18 (1966-1970) made me relate to this movie in a way that others with no military experience, may not.
I guess the basis for the movie is the psychological condition of young soldiers when they get back home and the military’s inattention if not downright refusal to admit that a huge problem exists with our returning soldiers.
In Iraq, the young men have the power to kill and also to be killed. They are young, yet have this awesome power of life and death. Under constant alert and apprehension, the people of Iraq somehow become non-humans, just the enemy. Life in general becomes expendable and normal rules of human conduct are somehow suspended.
The father tries to crack the military’s wall of silence about what happened to his son and eventually one of his son’s army buddies admits to stabbing him and dismembering him and not knowing why he just snapped that way. His other friends, who were there, just accepted the irrational, violent behavior as just something that happens to soldiers returning from action in Iraq.
The army content on just sweeping the whole thing under the carpet because that is what they normally do.
In my time, most of us were drafted or joined the Air Force so as not to be drafted into the army; I guess we did not want to be canon fodder. The all volunteer army was supposed to be better; soldiers that wanted to be soldiers. I guess during the Vietnam War, the draftees were more like citizen soldiers; knowing that their place is not in the military when the war is over but does that really make a difference?
Any time a police officer is involved in a shooting, he is ordered to undergo psychological evaluation not to see if he is crazy and that’s why he was involved in a shooting but because taking someone’s life is a traumatic experience for any one and he may need help to mentally handle what just happened.
I guess our soldiers do not receive any psychological debriefing when they return from war; maybe they should. This movie makes a case for such psychological help in a most dramatic and well told movie.
It is available on DVD and I can see why it garnered some Academy Award nominations.
A young soldier returns from Iraq and then goes missing. His many body parts are discovered in a field close to his army base. His father, a career army man (retired) wants some answers and the story begins.
The army soldiers are all young and all have seen horrific action in Iraq. I think my experiences with varied personalities in the Air Force at the age of 18 (1966-1970) made me relate to this movie in a way that others with no military experience, may not.
I guess the basis for the movie is the psychological condition of young soldiers when they get back home and the military’s inattention if not downright refusal to admit that a huge problem exists with our returning soldiers.
In Iraq, the young men have the power to kill and also to be killed. They are young, yet have this awesome power of life and death. Under constant alert and apprehension, the people of Iraq somehow become non-humans, just the enemy. Life in general becomes expendable and normal rules of human conduct are somehow suspended.
The father tries to crack the military’s wall of silence about what happened to his son and eventually one of his son’s army buddies admits to stabbing him and dismembering him and not knowing why he just snapped that way. His other friends, who were there, just accepted the irrational, violent behavior as just something that happens to soldiers returning from action in Iraq.
The army content on just sweeping the whole thing under the carpet because that is what they normally do.
In my time, most of us were drafted or joined the Air Force so as not to be drafted into the army; I guess we did not want to be canon fodder. The all volunteer army was supposed to be better; soldiers that wanted to be soldiers. I guess during the Vietnam War, the draftees were more like citizen soldiers; knowing that their place is not in the military when the war is over but does that really make a difference?
Any time a police officer is involved in a shooting, he is ordered to undergo psychological evaluation not to see if he is crazy and that’s why he was involved in a shooting but because taking someone’s life is a traumatic experience for any one and he may need help to mentally handle what just happened.
I guess our soldiers do not receive any psychological debriefing when they return from war; maybe they should. This movie makes a case for such psychological help in a most dramatic and well told movie.
It is available on DVD and I can see why it garnered some Academy Award nominations.
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