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VENICE FILM FESTIVAL! Mastidon And Another Reader Travel To The VALLEY OF ELAH With Paul Haggis!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I hope I get to see this and the new Coen Bros film in the next few weeks. It looks like a banner year for Tommy Lee Jones between the two, and both films are picking up fans the more they screen:
Hi Guys,
Before attending the Blade Runner premier last night, I caught "In the Valley of Elah" in the circus tent. This was the second screening of the film. The premier started at 7 pm and this one at 8:30 pm. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon. Its written and directed by Paul Haggis - famous for his movie Crash.
First some back-story about myself. I am an American living in Germany close to the town of Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden is home to the 1st Armored Division U.S. Army base. These are the guys who took Baghdad. I know several of the soldiers in 1st Armored and even employ a former one. They are all brave guys who are scheduled to deploy for another 15 month stay in Iraq shortly. For their sake, I hope it is only 15 months.
***SPOILERS*****
The title comes from the story of David and Goliath where the king for 40 days would ask soldiers to go fight Goliath in the valley of Elah. All refused until the 40th day when David said yes. How many soldiers died before David got the job done by killing Goliath? That is the question.
Elah opens with Hank (Tommy Lee Jones) getting a phone call from the Army base informing him that his son is AWOL (absent without leave). Hank leaves his worrying wife behind (Sarandon) and heads out on the road to find his missing son. Hank is an extremely anal guy and needs everything tidy and orderly As an example to this, he pulls over to correct a flag hung upside down at a school. He informs the school janitor that an upside down flag means distress. He gets back in his car and heads out to find his son. He visits the Army base where they can provide no help. He does swipe his son's cell phone. The phone is damaged but during the course of the film, recovered videos are played giving more of a picture into the life in Iraq.
Hank heads to the police for help in the form of Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron). While Hank is waiting at the station, Emily is dealing with a distraught woman begging for help. Seems her soldier husband drowned the family dog in the bathtub after it bit him. Emily offers no help saying the case is too hard to prosecute. Later in the film, the wife is found drowned in the same bathtub.
Over the course of the film, we see Hank's transition from anal military guy to distressed father. During his extended hotel stay, he goes from making the bed military style and getting up at 6 am to a total lack of care with pulled off sheets and sleeping in until being woken up by a knock on the door at 10 am. The remainder of the film follows the subsequent investigation into the disappearance and the real causes behind it.
The film has a few problems. Emily is teased by the other cops for sleeping her way into the job. After she does some good police work, they magically decide she isn't all bad and help her out. Susan Sarandon is totally wasted as the worried mother on the telephone. The story is fairly predictable.
What makes Elah good is that it does a fine job in conveying the dismay these guys experience after coming home. One day they are killing people, the next having chicken at the local joint.
***End SPOILERS****
All and all, Elah is not an anti-Iraq movie but an anti-war one. How can such young guys be expected to return to normal life after living through such insanity? I can tell you from the soldiers I know, its very tough.
After the screening, I was stopped by an elderly Italian woman. She wanted to know how I felt about the whole situation in Iraq and of the film. She described how in 1945 the Italians viewed Americans as liberators and that she felt this simply wasn't the case in Iraq. She continued by saying that the environment there is so hostile, that in her opinion you can't live like that since you can't turn your back on anyone without getting a knife in it. So how could anyone come out normal especially when you are a young kid with no wisdom.
Is Elah worth your time? Yes. Does it tell you anything you don't already know about war? No. Watch it anyway - especially if you know somebody who was in Vietnam or Iraq. Maybe you might have a little more insight into who they are.
I give it 3 1/2 stars.
Tonight I was supposed to see the new Woody Allen flick Cassandra's dream. However, due to some problem with the distributor, the screening got cancelled. I will still be seeing the new Brad Pitt - The Assignation of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford though! Review to follow on that tomorrow.
Ciao for now,
-Mastidon
Mastidon’s doing excellent work for us so far in his coverage from Venice, and I look forward to anything else he sends from the festival.
This next guy didn’t see the film in Venice (he’ll explain), but I just thought I’d publish them both together to offer up a couple of perspectives on it:
Hi, all. Longtime member of AICN, contributed a review a few years ago. I saw Paul Haggis' latest, "In the Valley of Elah" last night at a preview screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater (awesome local indie theater, if you've never been, go when you're in Boston) and wanted to kick in my thoughts. Spoilers follow, although frankly nothing you won't figure out in the first five minutes.
The basic plot is Tommy Lee Jones, playing an Authoritarian Hardass, is looking for his son, a soldier just back from a tour in Iraq. He gets there and, of course, nobody knows where he is. If you'veever seen a movie before, you can guess what happens next: the son turns up dead and Tommy Lee Jones, with the help of a female sidekick (Charlize Theron), looks to Bring the Killers To Justice.
I'd like to say that there's more to the movie than that, especially since you'll hear about this movie in the context of anti-Iraq-war sentiment, but that's really all there is to it. It's "The General's Daughter" or "Basic" without John Travolta and a lot of thuddingly obvious anti-war sentiment.
What really pissed me off while watching is how generic this movie is. Tommy Lee Jones plays his part perfectly and gets to display his comic timing a little bit, but the script doesn't want to give him anything interesting. Susan Sarandon has maybe ten minutes, most of that on the phone weeping. Charlize Theron was basically told "look tired". The central mystery is so badly set up and the clues so obvious there's no suspense. And apparently every single soldier who wasn't already a hardened criminal comes back from Iraq with PTSD.
I'm hoping to help short-circuit this movie's Oscar hopes. For all my whaling on it, the central flaw is really just how generic it is. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just kinda there. Warner Brothers is going to market this by tying it in to anti-war protests; there was a panel after this showing that I skipped. And that really sums this movie up well; it's not a sincere attempt to protest an injustice. It's cashing in on a trend. It's whoring for Oscar. When you get right down to it, "In the Valley of Elah" is Iraqsploitation.
Sincerely,
Theta
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+ Expand All
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YES.
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ARE THEY REMAKING F.I.S.T?
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Cutting edge new. Pushing the envelope. We all now know how they feel. I hope they feel better.
Really, I do. -
Sounds like Mastidon liked it more than I did, but it certainly seems like we saw the same films. I wish they conveyed just how ridiculous its is that Haggis just throws so many social quams into one little film. its like the guy just cant help but comment on absolutely everything no matter what the central story he is telling.
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But I like the description by the second reviewer, Theta, of this film as Iraqsploitation. My gut tells me she/he's right.
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Those are the movies I hate the most. At least you can laugh at the bad movies, and enjoy them on some campy level. You can't laugh at mediocre ones. They should've just made an anti-Iraq war film. Since, that's where their feelings truly lie anyway. Why try being politically correct? Just be honest.
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love it!
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I totally agree with your review. I probably should have been harder on this one as it does have so much predictable crap in it designed to push buttons. But I still think its important to see for anyone who has family who has been over just to get some kind of perspective.
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Paul Haggis gives the Scottish King of the Puddin race a bad name!
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word of the day my fucking ass
retarded word of the year more like it -
wouldn't expect anything more from Haggis than another thuddingly obvious anti-something film.
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overwraught, insipid and pretentious movies never really solve anything. they just make people of marginal intelligence come out of the theater feeling like they've learned something, and done a good deed by watching the film. it's an excuse for people who are not truly discerning in their view of the world, and who jus float on the surface, to feel like they are, just by watching a movie, finally really digging into the marrow of life. yes, there is racism in LA, in America, and in the world. no, there are no clear answers. yes, Crash is terrible, and you can admit it without giving up on solving the problem of racism. the movie sucks AND racism sucks. don't give either a pass!!and it's astonishing how many of these type of films are written by Paul Haggis (Walker Texas Ranger)...and it's funny how few movies that seem to believe they will change the world, actually do...and it's even funnier how many mediocre talents are so successful in Hollywood, just by the virtue of being a Scientologist. (Haggis has been a member for years)
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fuck, that's close to me. so we'll not-knowingly sit in the same theater at this year's exground filmfestival?[br] Ever since I've been able to read books with more than 50 pages I got bombarded (what a poor choice of words) with post-war (short) stories who show the estrangement and problematic situations of homecoming soldiers. So...if shedding "some" light on these problems is this film's only accomplishment I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to this tale.
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...not because I don't find these themes interesting and important, but because it has to be really good to bring up something meaningful, engaging and as bad as it sounds..."new"... And I can't really imagine Haggis to do that.
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Not disagreeing that people could use a reality check, but I REALLY don't think this movie is it. I didn't call it Iraqsploitation to be catchy; I remain unsure, after seeing and thinking about it, whether Paul Haggis actually gives a crap. I think the role of "wake-up call" is better served by the various documentaries about the war that have been coming out. Or, from, what I've been hearing, "Redacted."
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