Director: Kimberly Peirce
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 1.5
Important (and timely) message in an over-heated, politically messy movie: how fair is it for the U.S. Government to force soldiers - long after they've committed time and energy to serving in Iraq (and Afghanistan) - to serve more terms (and are they 'cowardly' for not wanting to go back)? The obvious answer is that it isn't, and that for all the Righty-led chants of "Support Our Troops!" we're literally doing anything but, sending the same men and women back for more sand and abuse. But once you have the basic message out of the way - and I'm pretty sure most people agree that the whole 'stop-loss' concept is a raw deal - the rest is juiced-up: all the soldiers (including the lead, Ryan Phillippe) have severe cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with some digging holes in their yard and hitting their wives (Channing Tatum) and others shooting wedding presents and smashing windows (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). It ends, too, in a no-win situation, with Phillippe giving up the crusade: he refuses to go to either Mexico or Canada, and willingly ships out again - so much for that good political and moral fight.
