Hollywood's Fall Offensive: Part I

Tom Miller - Military.com

Hollywood's Fall Offensive: Part I
"In the Valley of Elah"

In director-writer Paul Haggis' anti-war, anti-soldier polemic, grizzled veteran Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) asks a squad-mate of his missing son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) if Mike used drugs.  The answer - "No more than anyone else" - tells you all you need to know about this skewed exercise in character assassination. 

Not, "no," to spare the old man's feelings.  Not, "yes," because he deserves the truth.  No, this is bigger than Mike.  You can't indict an entire war on the back of a single victim.  Mike has to be Everyman. 

On the surface, Haggis' story is relatively straight-forward.  When Hank, a retired military policeman, gets word that his son Mike, recently returned from Iraq, is missing, he sets out to find him.  When Mike's dismembered body turns up in a field near the base, Hank and local police detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) team up to find out what happened.

Nobody else seems to care.  The MP's want to sweep it under the rug to avoid any embarrassment to the Army.  The local cops don't want the aggravation of a murder investigation.  Anyway, they're too busy harassing Sanders about her promotion to detective which they crudely suggest was secured with sexual favors.

That leaves it to the little guys (aging, grieving father and young, inexperienced detective) to take on the big, bad establishment.  That explains Haggis' pretentious title: the valley of Elah was the scene of the Biblical encounter between David and Goliath.  Nobody else here acts the least bit heroic or even honorably, so Hank and Emily must represent David.  The police and MP bureaucracies are Goliath. 

What follows only appears to be a police procedural.  For Haggis ("Crash"), the investigation is just an excuse to condemn the Iraq War.  (Haggis has said publicly that the film is "a political 'Trojan Horse' disguised as a murder mystery."  He also has been outspoken in his opposition not only to the Iraq War but also to our invasion of Afghanistan.) 

Fair enough.  What's not fair is the way he smears all soldiers to achieve that end. 

There are lots of soldiers in this film, but not one is cast in a positive light.  Not one.  In Haggis' world, Iraq-combat vets constitute a scary demographic. 

None is a hero.  None does his duty honorably.  None is a loving husband and father.  Or, a friend watching a buddy's back. 

On the other hand . . . They torture their wounded enemy.  They run down innocent Iraqi children.  They redeploy home without telling their anxious parents.  They frequent tawdry strip clubs.  They drown their wives.  They murder and dismember their buddies.  They dissemble.  They cover-up. 

Not ONE soldier or officer does the right thing. 

Of course, some soldiers will use drugs and frequent strip clubs.  A few will even kill their wives.  Some will put their career before their duty. 

The movie is "inspired" by a true story, so something like this happened.  Once, anyway.  Here, it's made to look routine, not isolated. 

War is hell.  Horrific.  Always has been.  Always will be.  Combatants see and do things that most people can scarcely imagine.  Of course, they are profoundly effected - some more than others.  But, most manage to cope.  Without drugs and strippers and murders. 

In Haggis' skewed vision, none is coping very well.  One drowns the family's dog in the bathtub.  Nobody, except for his terrified wife, seems to be too concerned. (With the exception of Detective Sanders, the cops seem to think it's funny.  Michael Vick should be so lucky.) 

But, this psychopath is just warming up.  Next, he drowns his wife.  That makes her another victim of the war, only one step removed.  (Or, is she?  Consider that there were 1159 female domestic homicides in 2004 - the latest year for which statistics are available.  That's 1159 Scott Peterson's and O.J.'s whose homicidal rage can't be traced to Iraq.)

My son's armored cavalry squadron was deployed to Iraq about the same time that this film is set.  As a front-line squadron, they mounted patrols, conducted raids, and sustained IED attacks and ambushes.  They've been home now for almost a year.  And, guess what?   None has murdered anyone - wife, girlfriend, buddy, or stranger. 

Make no mistake: they are not angels.  This is a high testosterone demographic - in uniform and out.  And, combat is rarely ennobling.  Many are likely troubled - some deeply - by their experience and hopefully have sought help. 

The military is working harder at identifying and helping those at risk than they're given credit for.  But, all our soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen are volunteers and most are proud of their service.  Despite their wounds - physical and emotional - most don't consider themselves victims. 

Hollywood liberals like Haggis find themselves in a quandary.  How can they denounce the war (less risky now that public support has eroded) without demonizing the troops (whom the public still claims to support)? 

Haggis' answer lies in making the troops victims of the war.  That might have worked if his victims were sympathetic.  But they aren't.  Not in the least.  All he manages to do is dishonor their service.  Military.com Rating: *

Military.com's Movie Rating Scale
* A celluloid dishonorable discharge (Best to avoid if possible)
** Another weekend pass (O.K., but nothing special)
*** On a par with a promotion (Don't pass it up)
**** Redeployment (It doesn't get much better than this)

Next Up: Hollywood's Fall Offensive, Part II: "Rendition"

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