Denby's Stop-Loss Praise

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In a 4.7.08 review, New Yorker critic David Denby is playing my Stop-Loss song, or vice versa or something in between. But Kimberly Peirce's film opened two days ago and didn't exactly rewrite box-office history, so Denby's support has come late in the game. Perhaps too late.

Stop-Loss "is not a great movie," Denby says, "but it's forceful, effective, and alive, with the raw, mixed-up emotions produced by an endless war -- a time when the patriotism of military families is in danger of being exploited beyond endurance.

"This movie may become the central coming-home-from-the-war story of this period, just as The Best Years of Our Lives, made in 1946, became central to the period after the Second World War. Like that extraordinary work, Stop-Loss is devoted to the men's hidden wounds -- the wired-up tensions and nightmares that lead to drunkenness, fights, smashed love affairs and marriages.

"Throughout the Second World War, Hollywood made dozens of patriotic combat films, as well as occasional home-front movies (like Tender Comrade with Ginger Rogers) about gallant wives. The Korean War, except for B-movies by Samuel Fuller and Joseph H. Lewis, went undramatized until it was over, and this was largely true of the Vietnam War, too. During all these wars, none of the discomforts of the returning soldier, or the dismay of his friends and family, were shown on the screen.

Most of the recent feature films about Iraq (Rendition, Lions for Lambs, Redacted) have not been very good, and the public has stayed away from them. But audiences ignored Paul Haggis's sternly beautiful and moving In the Valley of Elah, too. Something more than the usual resistance to 'tough' subjects may be hurting these movies. The Bush Administration told us that we were waging a war for our survival, but it also suggested that most of us needn't make sacrifices or even learn much about the conflict. Then again, some people may be so angered by the war that they don't want to be confronted by it as entertainment.

"But Kimberly Peirce, whose younger brother has served in Iraq, has conceived her picture in popular terms that won't be easy to ignore. Except for a few enraged sentiments that Brandon unloads on his commanding officer, Stop-Loss is not overtly critical of the war, but the way it uses the soldiers' experience is inherently political. Peirce plays the antiwar game fairly. Indeed, she plays it as if she were a soldier herself.

"It's hard to find the right tone for these movies, because even in victory there is loss. And the second Iraq war hasn't yielded victory, nor is it likely to. For all the shoving and cursing and jangled videos, Stop-Loss has its own kind of tentativeness. Ryan Phillipe's Brandon King, who is both violent and highly moral (a classic American combination), struggles to understand what's right, yet the movie doesn't hold much hope that things are going to work out for him.

"At this moment, and maybe in the future, too, the resolution of an American warrior's doubts is impossible to imagine. The soldiers are held together by their love for one another, and that element of Army life may make Stop-Loss popular with both liberals and conservatives, but no one, I think, will be happy about what the movie suggests is happening to some of the best young people in the country."

comment #1

btwnproductions says ...

Does no one remember 2006's HOME OF THE BRAVE? It seems to have covered some of the same ground.

comment #2

actionman says ...

Home of the Brave was very cliche and very tv-movie of the week. It got overly sentimental and was marred by weak performances.

Stop-Loss, which I think is a great film, is the best and most thoughtful film so far about our sodiers experiences in the current Iraq war. Philippe was phenomenal and Tatum was strong as well; Cornish doesn't do anything for me one way or another so I thought if anything, she was the weak link. The film worked as entertainment and it worked as a passionate, personal statement about our current situation. It's an anti-war, pro-soldier film that people should have made an effort to see. But they didn't. They went to see 21. How surprising...

I'd also like to add that Rendition is painfully underrated and didn't deserve to completely die at the box office. I am glad to see that people seem to be finding it on DVD.

Redacted was quite unaccessible and not exactly audience friendly, yet it too made a strong statement and shouldn't be ignored. De Palma could never have thought a film like his was ever going to see a wide release, so I think all of the reporting of how this film "bombed at the box office" is just asinine. It's a small, art film about the current war in Iraq with no-name actors and challenging formal ambitions. The acting in the film was atrocious, however, which really hurt it.

I did not see Lions for Lambs but look forward to catching up with it on DVD.

I also thought that Elah was a stong, if slightly flawed, piece of work. I loved it pretty much till the final shot of Jones with the flag; unnecessary Haggis-style sledgehammering which I thought he successfully avoided for much of the film. Much A riveting procedural thriller combined with a deep story of fathers and sons, and the casual hate that seethes under our country's skin. Elah was a much better and much more important than Crash.

Maybe after the war is over people will circle back and realize they missed a lot of work that is both entertaining and relevant. Or maybe not. Either way, I've been pleased with what Hollywood has done thus far so no huge complaints from me.

comment #3

Walter Sobchak says ...

"I disagree, I liked it. I'm recommending it."
- Richard Roeper (referring to every movie ever)

comment #4

LukeT says ...

I was completely let down by this film. The only bright spot in my mind was Joseph Gordon Levitt who stole every scene he was in. I personally loved In the Valley of Elah and think that it will go down as the best film made about this conflict.

comment #5

buckzollo says ...

Great acting. Very interesting and visually stylistic with various media used, stocks, grain, stills...but something is missing. I hope what is missing is not somehow that most of cannot truly connect with this war. I do not care for Joseph G Levitt, but all of the actors deliver.

comment #6

christian says ...

There are good things here, but overall I found it overwrought, piling on every character. It's not the PLATOON of Iraq war films. But the scenes in Iraq I found most effective at conveying the high-wire sense of danger. And there's one great line the audience applauded...

comment #7

MovieBob says ...

It's a good movie with the ballsiest final scene of any Iraq movie so far, but it has all the same problems as the others: The middle act is just a long, episodic road-tour of talking points and it's STILL just a re-branded Vietnam movie.

When are they going to figure this out? You're not going to affect the war one way or another by rushing out movies about it. The great Nam movies came afterwards. We're not gonna have a real idea of what this means or how it's going to play in narrative until it's done with (about midway through the next president's term, regardless of who he is.)

comment #8

bb says ...

Not setting the boxoffice on fire? It is a unmitigated bomb.

While all the really smart studio execs and film critics sit around wringing their hands, trying to understand why the public isn't taking in the Iraq War movies, I'll give it to you straight.

The public knows the kind of brainless posturing to expect from current Hollywood. Why? Because current Hollywood doesn't have the ability to look at this issue with intelligence and...honesty.

Joe Blow in Arkansas has no desire to see some effete movie star preach to him about what his political views should be. He's got Chris Matthews for that.

Stack on top of that MTV Films and well, maybe they do a great job having Brett Michaels humiliate a group of women for the chance of being the girl he'll dump in six months but who the hell is looking for political insight from that craptacular production company?

Most Americans understand Iraq, the soldiers and even the motivations in ways that the left coasters living inside their carefully constructed social bubbles will never comprehend.

Of course when you have a brother or cousin or friend in Iraq, it's easy to see the stupidity of an idiot like Richard Belzer when he brilliantly describes the troops as morons.

I haven't seen Stop Loss so I have no opinion about it but Hollywood's inability to actually explore this issue in a mature and intelligent way has caused me to cease attending any of these masterpieces.

I know, i know the hand wringing is scheduled for years to come but trust me, the answer is already here.

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

Why do I get the feeling Denby would like this movie more if it were a musical set in the final Communist days of Romania.

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