In the Valley of Elah

So far, no films focusing on the war in Iraq have done well at the box office. In the Valley of Elah is no exception. Even with big stars like Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, audiences stayed away. They missed out on a pretty good movie. Paul Haggis (writer/director of the hugely over-rated Oscar winning Crash) mixes murder mystery, police procedural, and anti-war polemic with mostly satisfactory results. The melting pot of ideas is also the film's weakness.

Obviously, the principal actors all put on great performances. Haggis is a capable director, and he is usually very good at stringing words together. The biggest problem with Elah is that it tries to apply the specific experiences and actions of one group of soldiers to the broader conflict in Iraq. What stands out are two scenes that bookend the main story, in which Tommy Lee Jones shows a school groundskeeper how to properly display the flag. There are a few other instances throughout the movie where it feels like Haggis pauses the DVD (or Blu-ray if you know what's good for you) and underlines his point. Oversimplifying and stereotyping soldiers also negatively impacted Rendition and Stop-Loss, which also deal with the war in Iraq.

Stop-Loss is the best of these three Iraq War films, mainly because of Kimberly Peirce's realistic style of writing and directing. Hopefully, she won't take another nine years to make her next movie.

If you are interested in another film about the war and soldiers, definitely check out Gunner Palace. It's a documentary from 2005 about the lives of American soldiers staying in one of Hussein's old bombed-out palaces. Luckily for Netflix subscribers, it is currently available through Instant Viewing.