In The Valley Of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007)

[flyonthewall2983]

Trailer.

[Antoine Doinel]

Trailer in Quicktime.

[The Invunche]

Is this a remake of Courage Under Fire with the leading black guy replaced by a white guy?

[Andre Jurieu]

Jeffrey Wells loves it. Ed Gonzalez hates it.

[Grimfarrow]

I hated CRASH with a passion...
But I have to say that this movie is pretty good, ruined by a cheesy overly sappy score at the end and a needless scene with the flag. Still, the acting is very good and I was surrprised at how controlled it was for much of it. It will divide people, but won't be surprised if it shows up on some awards list at the end of the year.

[jbeall]

If Paul Haggis can make a film where I don't see the ending coming after only five minutes, I'll watch it. Although formulaic and trite, Crash was well-written (by that relative standard), so I can't deny that Haggis has talent. But I think he could put a lot more effort into his screenplays. Paddy Chayefsky he ain't.

[filmnoir1]

I recently saw this film after much anticipation and I would argue that this is one of the best films of the year and perhaps maybe one of the most important of the decade. In this film Haggis uses levels of images in a way that challenges the viewer as well as the narrative itself. For example while this film appears to be a simple genre piece, a sort of military police procedural through the use of crime scenes, conversations between police personnel, and interview techniques, it slowly evolves into a pointed examination of the Iraq war, the effects the war is having on the men serving, and how these men, so-called heroes, are being destroyed by the harmful effects of a war that they don't understand. In addition to a war that is incomprehensible, the film shows that these men are forever damaged so much so that when they return home, they have lost their moral compass and sanity. There is no help because no one wants to admit there is a problem, not the military, the politicians, the public or even the soldiers families, thus these men are left alone in their minds to suffer, and this level of suffering is depicted onscreen in the men's reactions to the experience of being in Iraq fighting for freedom, at home with their families whom they can no longer connect with and within themselves.
Haggis also uses the film to connect the horrors and lingering effects of Vietnam that plagued the zeitgeist of the 80s to the current debacle. Tommy Lee Jones's character is a retired Army detective who had been shipped off to Vietnam, whose son has now been sent to Iraq where he learns the painful lessons of war, which are that even fighting for something believed to be noble and good there are always dark consequences. To convey the chaos and darkness of this war, Haggis uses recreations of cell phone video thereby connecting the war to the indvidualistic media consumers and creators such as those on youtube while also demonstrating that the historical record of this war will not be letters, or media sanctioned images because the people possess the power to document and inform. And it is through these images that a father (Tommy Lee Jones) learns about who his son was and how unnecessary the Iraq war has been for all those concerned.

[ievenlostmycat]

I agree this is a good anti-war film, done up as a murder mystery. I'm surprised there aren't more comments about it, but I suspect that may be a bias against Haggis. He seems quite a polemic guy. I've never seen Crash or Million Dollar Baby so I was going in blind. It definitely has some flaws, but it's just as good as Vietnam anti-war "classics" like Coming Home and The Deer Hunter. I saw it more a movie about the horrors of war rather than specifically the horrors of the Iraq war. I think it will hold up better than some of the Vietnam movies.

[Jeff]

I agree this is a good anti-war film, done up as a murder mystery. I'm surprised there aren't more comments about it, but I suspect that may be a bias against Haggis. He seems quite a polemic guy. I've never seen Crash or Million Dollar Baby so I was going in blind. It definitely has some flaws, but it's just as good as Vietnam anti-war "classics" like Coming Home and The Deer Hunter. I saw it more a movie about the horrors of war rather than specifically the horrors of the Iraq war. I think it will hold up better than some of the Vietnam movies.

I found it much more palatable than Crash, and was fine with it until the closing minutes when Haggis literally tied his message down and duct taped it in place so that nobody could miss it. There was a much more graceful way to convey the same idea. Oh, and in case you still didn't get it, here's Annie Lennox to beat it into you with a sledgehammer.