tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794229.post6339588468617289489..comments2023-11-02T02:36:21.399-07:00Comments on Check the Fien Print: MovieWatch: "In the Valley of Elah"Daniel Fienberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15875425500395284200noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794229.post-20523127435653490232021-09-10T22:43:09.620-07:002021-09-10T22:43:09.620-07:00This was lovvely to readThis was lovvely to readEva Lhttps://www.evalittle.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794229.post-61312274415960022822007-10-05T14:58:00.000-07:002007-10-05T14:58:00.000-07:00""Elah," in fact, becomes muddled for me by how na...""Elah," in fact, becomes muddled for me by how naive Hank is about post-traumatic stress and the impact of war on young soldiers."<BR/><BR/>Ding ding ding ding!<BR/><BR/>And this right here is where the film lost me. The film wants to have it both ways so Tommy Lee's character has to be a military lifer who passive-aggressively pushed both of his sons into the armed service (and as you pointed out, to be the best military investigator in history) yet he appears to have no concept of PTSD. Even if his character was never in a My Lai-like event (it remains unclear whether he was actually stationed in Vietnam) it is impossible for him to have not encountered someone who did not come back from the war the man they left. Did he never wonder why all those veterans holding signs by the side of the freeway never just "walked it off and got a job."<BR/><BR/>So to keep the <I>Hardcore</I> analogy going, it would be like if our Ron Jeremy had never met anyone who had the clap.<BR/><BR/>The film desperately wants to address Iraq but it has no special insight into the conflict and is itself hopelessly naive about what it is our young men and women do (and have done) on the field of battle. <I>Elah</I>'s final message can be distilled down to "war... all war is hell" which was a lot more bracing when <I>The Best Years of Our Lives</I> came out 60 years ago. Now it just feels like Haggis is patting himself on the back for taking a "difficult stance" when in fact he's merely scratching the surface.<BR/><BR/>Still, way way better than <I>Crash</I>.Andrew Dignanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03535783608109870688noreply@blogger.com