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In the Valley of Elah
(2007)
Release Date: Sept. 14, 2007
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Jason Patric, Susan
Sarandon, Jonathan Tucker
Directed by: Paul Haggis
Recommendation: Get a root canal instead.
Summary: Army veteran father searches for his missing Iraq War veteran
son and finds that he was murdered. Through persistence he pushes
reluctant military and local authorities to expose perpetrators/motive.
First of all, credit must be given to the fine performances by a
talented and well-pedigreed cast. The script is aptly written, but the
characters are pigeon-holed into archetypical stick figures twisted to
conform to an agenda. What makes the movie unworthy of recommendation
is the implausibility of a plot that is fundamentally a grossly
ill-informed caricature of Hollywood’s viewpoint of American military
presence in Iraq.
The movie opens with Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) getting a phone
call from a stateside military police official admonishing him to get
his AWOL son Mike to report to base before he gets into more trouble.
Knowing that this is clearly out of character, the father immediately
sets off for the army base to investigate, as it is assumed that local
and military authorities are too corrupt, overworked and/or lazy to
handle this properly.
So far, this is standard American movie fare; we tend to be distrustful
of government officials and are drawn to stories of individuals who
take matters into their own hands to see justice served. “I will find
him,” he assures his worried wife.
As the investigation unfolds, we are treated to snippets of videos that
the missing son shot while in Iraq. As more are recovered from the
damaged camera phone and sent piecemeal to the father, more elements
fall together – and more questions arise. A body is found and the plot
seems to be following the pattern of a typical murder mystery. The
officers and men are respectful and cooperative. The son’s buddies have
nothing but nice things to say about him.
Jones is subtle and convincing as the determined father, sublimating
his emotions in the pursuit of Justice. Sarandon is excellent as the
long-suffering, grieving mother who finds that she has now lost her
second son to the military. “Couldn’t you at least leave me ONE, Hank?”
But there is a larger point to all of this and it is revealed in the
last third of the movie. From time to time, we faintly hear President
Bush’s voice in passing on the T.V. or radio explaining the Iraqi
mission’s importance and touting the progress being made. This little
drama starkly ‘informs’ us that it is otherwise.
It turns out that son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) was quite the monster in
Iraq and so were his friends. They gratuitously tortured and killed,
including children. They laughed about it while atrocities were
perpetrated and again in later recollection. None of this is shown as
being exceptional. When it is then revealed that the murderer was one
of Our Own Boys, the killing was done senselessly and there was no
hesitation to cover it up, this is depicted as instinctively typical.
To drive the point home further, a woman is found to have been murdered
by her military husband –ultimately because local authorities failed to
intervene when the victim came to them scared after he cruelly killed
their dog. Officer Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) is suitably
remorseful as she finds the victim slain in a similar manner. Thus, the
message we are left with is that when we send our boys to fight an
Unjust War, we inevitably turn them into monsters who prey upon the
natives when in country and us when they get back. Remember John
Kerry’s 1971 comparisons of our troops to Genghis Khan in Viet Nam and
how veterans were then regarded as losers at best and dangerous
psychotics at worst?
Those who have actually been to Iraq have a different story to tell.
Search YouTube for ‘Iraq Bus Fire’ and you will find Marines firing at
a bus that ran a road block, then promptly risking their lives to save
the survivors from the blazing vehicle. Hollywood still has not found
the heart to portray the far more numerous examples of similar bravery,
nation-building under fire or allow that the Iraqi people are much
better off without Saddam’s staff rapists, jails for children and
mass-graves. Consequently, movies like In the Valley of Elah
are
slanderous of the military and reveal more about Hollywood’s distorted,
agendized perception than the reality on the ground.
Those who share the filmmakers’ point of view will certainly not find
this movie uplifting either; there are no answers offered. We are just
supposed to be outraged, but not have any solutions or alternatives –
much like the Left is in response to most situations, including Iraq.
Thus we are left with Tommy Lee Jones raising a tattered American Flag
upside down after having ‘naively’ righted another one earlier.
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