The movie Stop Loss premiered nationwide yesterday, and in its wake I was asked how I thought soldiers were portrayed in war movies. Two days before I saw the movie, I offered my view and what I predicted would be the same with Stop Loss:
Hollywood has pigeonholed soldiers as "southern rednecks" or "dregs of society" when in reality the armed forces are made up of everyone from California surfers to fast-talking Brooklynites.
"We serve for a variety of different reasons, like patriotism, education benefits or a way to get our lives back on track and earn a little discipline." he said. "From a filmgoer's standpoint, we joined to get out of our hick town or to blow stuff up."
Another misstep on the part of screenwriters and directors, Horton said, is portraying veterans as either seriously alcoholic or constantly battling post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Both are serious problems," he admitted. "But they don't affect every single soldier."
Everyone who goes to war and back is changed to some degree, Horton said, but judging from the trailers he's seen of "Stop-Loss," the film paints a picture that every soldier is adversely affected by war, which isn't the case, he said.
It seems not much has changed in Hollywood.
Warning: Spoilers Abound!
Directed by Kimberley Peirce (Boy's Don't Cry), Stop Loss is a fictional drama based on the real life retention policy of keeping solders in the military past their contractual obligation. I went to the show with a friend of mine, also a veteran, only a few miles away from the front gate at Ft. Lewis. Outside the box office, I could spot active duty members a mile away buying tickets.
Inside the theater, I looked around before the lights dimmed down. It wasn't the audience I expected. With the seats at little more than half capacity, I saw a lot of women in their twenties in groups of three or more. It seemed they were more interested in seeing a shirtless Ryan Phillippe than an examination of an abused military policy. There were several young men in the audience but they were clearly outnumbered by the fairer sex.
The movie opened up with the obligatory scenes of combat and losing buddies but soon derailed into melodrama when the main character, SSG King (played by Phillippe) finds that he is being stop lossed the day he is supposed to get out of the Army. He is ordered to report to a unit shipping out to Iraq only a month after he himself returned. After a yelling match with his scheming battalion commander, who orders him to the brig for his refusal of an order, he lays out two MPs and begins his journey from his small Texas town to Washington, D.C. to seek the refuge of his senator.
Accompanying him on the journey is the fiancé of his best friend, Michelle (Abbie Cornish). She sports a black eye for half of the movie after a fight with her soon to be husband Sgt. Shriver (Channing Tatum), who is battling PTSD like every single character in the film. In a deal cut with the battalion commander, he re-ups, sending Michelle over the edge and into the confused arms of SSG King, torn between his duty to his men and standing up for his own principes.
The story is interlaced with the tragic downfall of Private Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who suffers the most out of all the PTSD-afflicted soldiers. It also follows SSG King across the country, falling into a pit of despair after visiting the parents of a man killed on his watch, and a hospital visit with a member of his squad who became a double amputee following an explosion.
The movie has good good intentions approaching a delicate and controversial subject but it gets caught up in typical war movie clichés and melodrama. Hollywood has the idea that soldiers are dominated by their service 24/7 and in turn use military-speak at every turn, keep their hair skull tight and wear their dog tags with every outfit. You could hear the eyeballs in the audience roll after the repeated use of "watch your six" and other catch phrases not heard since the first month of basic training. Every character had a southern drawl and a penchant for drinking heavily while shooting shotguns (after scenes of square dancing and drunken brawls, of course), a stereotype that is profoundly inaccurate but has nevertheless been prevalent in war movies for years.
All of the sappy drama aside, it put into perspective some of the dangers faced by veterans when they return from war. Not many civilians know what the stop loss policy entails (if they know anything about it), and perhaps this movie will shine light on the subject and allow some room for deliberation around the water coolers of America. Unfortunately, it seems like the country is suffering from war fatigue, so there's no telling how much this movie will affect public discourse. As a war movie it barely passes, and as a drama it's too contrived despite its good intentions. But let's hope it achieves its goal: national understanding of the little known but unfortunate policy of what has been called 'a back-door draft.' |
