Film Review: Stop-Loss

Can anyone make an Iraq War film that the public wants to see? There have been a few very good films with the Iraq War as a theme/backdrop. None have made even a ripple at the box-office. "In the Valley of Elah" was released last fall to glowing reviews and featured an Academy Award nominated performance from Tommy Lee Jones. It topped out at 6.7 million domestic gross earnings. That was the highest grossing Iraq-themed film out of the half-dozen that made it to theaters. This week Paramount Pictures and MTV Films released "Stop-Loss" with a heavy advertising campaign that prominently mentions a 4 1/2 star review from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. The movie features a young, good-looking cast, and promised to be the film that finally brought a mainstream audience to a movie "about" the Iraq War. "Stop-Loss" debuted at # 8 for the weekend with 4.5 million in receipts, well behind a movie about MIT students who win big at the blackjack tables in Vegas. The American moviegoing population is just not interested in this war. Maybe no one is. A recent audit of the major newspapers in the US showed that only 6% of all stories published on the front page were about the Iraq War. About the film. It's a very sombering story of a small town Texas soldier who has served the five years he signed up for. A clause in that contract he signed says the military can recall him to serve out what normally is "inactive" time as an active duty soldier. This is called being "stop-lossed". The director tells us in her coda that out of 650,000 troops that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 80,000 have had this happen to them. The main character aptly calls it a "backdoor draft". The center piece of Kimberly Peirce's film is a road trip through the US that Staff Sergeant King(Ryan Phillipe) and his best friends fiancee embark on after he goes AWOL. On his way to see a Congressman in DC who once told him to "see me if you need anything", he visits a multiple amputee from his platoon, a deceased soldiers' parents, and encounters a sort of underground group of other stop-lossed soldiers who are "hiding out". Back at home in Texas his best friend has decided to re-enlist, and his other friend has started self-medicating with alcohol. During his journey we see that Sgt. King is suffering from severe PTSD. We won't reveal what ultimately happens or what is decided, but it's one of the most haunting and heart-breaking final shots of any war movie I've ever seen. My wife and I left the theater feeling angry and helpless. After seeing the box-office totals I felt sadness.