Wednesday, April 2, 2008

STOP - LOSS

“STOP-LOSS” (Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish & Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Every young American considering joining today’s Army should see this film. I only wish it was released a few years earlier.
“Stop-Loss” is the first Iraq War movie I’ve seen that actually deals with what the soldiers are going through - & the results are shocking. I’m surprised that the current administration has been able to get away with the ‘Stop-Loss’ procedure; but at this point unscrupulous behavior seems to be the norm doesn’t it?
In his best acting role to date, Ryan Phillippe plays Sgt. Brandon King who leads his platoon into an Iraqi ambush where 3 of his men are killed & one is maimed & badly burned. He is decorated upon his return to the states for saving his best friend, Steve (Channing Tatum) during the fracas.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays guitar playing soldier Tommy Burgess who also comes out of the experience ‘damaged’.
On the day Sgt. King believes he’s to be released he is instead told he is being ‘Stop-lossed’ & will be returned to Iraq for another year of duty. His cowboy hat wearing Texas father (Englishman Ciaran Hinds ‘cowboying’ it up with a Southern drawl) believes he needs to do what’s right to serve his country, but Brandon thinks otherwise & goes AWOL in the hope of enlisting the help of a Texas senator who told him at the awards ceremony ‘if you ever need anything, you come see me’.
Fetching Abbie Cornish plays Steve’s girl, Michelle. She doesn’t like the violent change she sees in Steve & offers to help drive life-long friend Brandon to Washington D.C.
The film then focuses on their adventures trekking from Texas to (eventually) Buffalo.
Sgt. King considers it his duty to stop & see the families of the men who were killed under his command & pay a visit to Rico, the soldier who lost an arm, a leg & his sight during the ambush. Rico’s outlook on life is surprising & you can see that Brandon finds it hard to believe that Rico seems to be the only soldier to come out of the War ‘unscarred’ mentally.
Brandon is left with 3 choices; leave the country for good & never see his family again; turn himself in & do jail time for his crime of refusing to be ‘recycled’ back into a devastating, senseless war; or be a good little soldier boy & do another year in hell for GW. His final decision may surprise you – whichever one he makes, a sad ending is guarenteed.
My only complaint with this movie is the MTV style camera work & the rap & screaming ‘soundtrack’ that caused me to stick my fingers in my ears more than once.
But as a story it is excellent & poignant – Like I said, thinking about joining the Army?
Parents of kids of enlisting age? Go see this movie because this kind of thing is really happening, folks – ‘Stop-Loss’ wasn’t ‘invented’ by Hollywood – guys who have already served their time are being sent back because there aren’t enough volunteers to fight the war that shouldn’t be.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't be fooled by "Stop-Loss" or Terry Reader. Stop-loss (and stealing a few votes in Ohio) got me a second term. The splurge got me to the end of my second term. The economy is doing fine. Gas prices are actually falling as a percentage of temperatures on the Sun.

I am not the worst president ever! What about James Buchanan. He was so bad he led us into the Civil War. Say what you will about Iraq, I did not get us involved in a civil war.

Terry Reid said...

George, George, George... what are we going to do with you? Stop reading movie reviews & get back to doing what you do best - Running the United States of America into the ground... & it's the month of May now, where's my refund check for losing my job?

Anonymous said...

no more war movie. there is still war. not fare to the troops. should wait to war is over out of respect to soldier.

Anonymous said...

Well, how about showing respect to the troops by not making them do 2 tours of duty when they only signed up for one? Hiding your head in the sand during an unjust war isn't being patriotic. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.