My Film Review For- Stop-Loss

Stop-Loss: 3.5/5

When it comes to the Iraq, we all have our opinions. When it comes to Hollywood the opinions are unanimous…Lets end the war, the war is bad. So now Hollywood is cashing in and capitalizing on peoples emotions with films like Home of the Brave, Rendition and In the valley Elah. Stop-loss joins these lines of these films as it discusses The lives of 3 young American soldiers who are affected by the Iraq war in this military drama directed by Kimberly Peirce( the same director who helmed Boys Don’t Cry). Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Philippe) a decorated Iraq War veteran who survived a devastating enemy attack that left two his friends dead and another injured. . After his tour of duty comes to an end, King returns to his Texas hometown and attempts to pick up life with a little help from his family, and wartime buddy Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) and colleague Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). But just as Brandon, Steve, and Tommy settle back into civilian life, The army comes calling on them once again. Suddenly ordered back into active duty, with a government order policy called a Stop-loss. This impacts the three men different as Brandon decides to run away to Canada , Steve decides to serve willfully in order to fulfill his dream in becoming a CIA sniper and Tommy as little by little he becomes violent and insane. Stop-loss starts off, with what you would expect with any traditional war movie: guns-blazing , shaky camera movements, documentary style shooting with Iraqi terrorist ambushes as blood and guts splatter all over the place. Loss, remorse, . It felt all to familiar to me. Whats worse was Kimberly at times threw in a few unsubtle liberal remarks like when Brandon says something along the lines as “fuck the president, he is not in this war, he doesn’t now how it is” or “ this a back-door draft ”.Sneaky ,sneaky Kimberly…and to think you almost had me there. However, overlooking all that a side, what I found in the center of this thought provoking drama was a more provocative look at American soldiers who grow deeper and deeper in their post-war traumatic stress as their values and lives are tested like never before. Each Character in the film goes through a psychological and mental breakdown at on point or another, especially when it comes to Tommy Burgess who suffers the most in the entire film. There were times I questioned the films intentions as I wondered if is was appropriate for all the characters to fall mad this quickly and this deep . But the film is filled such raw true emotions that whether you believe in the story or not ,you cant help but sympathize with characters and there feelings of betrayal and pride for being a solider. Ryan Philippe, Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all give the performances of there careers, including Abbie Cornish who plays Shriver’s girlfriend. Agirl who is stuck between helping Brandon escape and staying with Steve as a dreaded army wife. Each of the male leads display a range of heightened emotion from paranoia, regret, pride, hurt, disorientation, delusion and confusion Kimberly gives her characters nobility and respect. She doesn’t pity her fellow 3 soldiers but sympathize with their misfortunate situation that there in . She is definitely pro-soldier but anti-war. Take for example a touching scene in the movie where Brandon visits his wounded army buddy Rico Rodriguez ( Victor Rasuk) who has lost his eyesight, legs, and arms and is scarred all over from the war. A scene like this could have been wrought with melodrama and self-pity, but instead is carefully constructed with dignity as Rico insist to Brandon that he is now a better person from this. Some have wrongfully accused Stop -loss of a being a film about dissertation. Its easy to get caught up in the films external message of how war is negligence on youth and robs the young of innocence. However, if you focus more on the real implication, you might see that Stop-loss is a universal idea of sacrificing so much when all you’ve given is not enough.