In the Valley of Elah

I'm curious too. This looked like a really good movie, but never played in my area. What is up with that?

I am sure this movie will aggravate me, but I plan to watch it because I know someone who was in it.

I saw it in the theater here, but it wasn't out that long ago, so I would expect a DVD probably late winter early spring maybe? Just a thumb in the air guesstimmate, I don't even really recall when it was in the theater. BTW, it has moment of brilliance, definitely worth a viewing, though it also reinforces my ambivalence towards Haggis. The guy can really drive me nuts sometimes, but he's also an excellent filmmaker. Tommy Lee Jones' performance in this is incredible, superior even to his performance in No Country for Old Men.

I watched the movie last night. Very good job by TLJ and the story was told well. The underlying theme is nothing new concerning vets returning home from (pick a war/conflict). I was quite happy with the movie until the end. It was like "if you all idiots haven't gotten the message, here's something you can't miss". Maybe stuff like that is needed nowadays The color palette of the movie was very muted to match the dark subject matter. Nice touch.

larry

A well told mystery / drama with superb acting throughout.

Agree! Very well done, entertaining movie.

For those that may not be aware "In the Valley of Elah" is based on a real event:

"In the Valley of Elah is based on a real 2003 case involving the stabbing death of Iraq war veteran Spc. Richard Davis after he returned from battle. Surrounding the case were allegations the victim witnessed war-time atrocities, and the convicted perpetrators suffered from extreme stress disorders that were downplayed by officials."

You may read the complete article here.

It was shunned because the word got around of yet another anti-military diatribe by Hollywood liberals.

Ummm, what part of "it was based on a true story" do you not understand?

From my point of view, that’s a totally erroneous characterization of this film.

While it does portray an unflinching look at some of the more subtle horrors of war, it is most certainly NOT anti-military. There’s a huge gulf between being anti-war and anti-military, but some don’t understand the distinction between the two.

excellent movie. great cast. very emotional at times. i found the climax a bit odd or blow the climax level I thought it would be. maybe far fetched. i don't know.
the blu ray is superb, video and audio. a recommended buy imho.
last night is was MICHAEL CLAYTON, another great movie and recommended bray.
excellent video and audio

I've queued this one up, but am discouraged by Larry's mini-review mentioning that the "message" is applied via sledge-hammer, rather than subtlely. Oh, well, it was filmed here in Albuquerque. And having deployed in this current conflict, I'm interested to see this take on the incident-in-question.

It's not that bad. It's more of a "dummy down" or "insult to one's intelligence" than anything else. At least that's my take.

larry

And how many "based on a true story" films have we seen that take ample liberties with the truth in the name of dramatization? All of 'em?

Great lead up to a more than disappointing ending....is how a few of us took it that watched the film last night. I think we all felt like we must have skipped a chapter on the dvd or somthing becuase the universal theme was "that's it????" for the ending. Guess we were thinking there was more to it than there was.

that Sledge Hammer was big enough (aka Platoon - which was still way better than this thing) to make be lower it from a 3.5 star to average 2-2.5 star.

I don't like being preached to!, and any director who does so will get demoted by me - regarldess of whether I agree with the theme or not.

and Iragnam is the dumbest war we've fought since 1776 - don't need a jerkoff directer telling me the sky is blue, thank you.

average flick. maybe worth a buck to see.

not more. - a hair above Lion for Lambs.

have yet to see a good movie about Iraqnam - unless we can count Blackhawk Down!.............why not/same war. now THAT was a movie!

I haven't seen this, and probably won't. I think I've about had it with those "that's it????" endings. And it seems that there are far too many films that I do that to these days.

Thanks so much for sharing that, Airboss. That's a rarely ever found and pretty revealing interview of one my favorite actors.

It would be nice, for once, to find a project about the soldiers fighting in Iraq that shows their bravery and heroism, because they are the best of the best and it sickens me to see film after film portraying them as crazed loons, rapists and cold blooded killers of innocents.

The crazed loner Vietnam vet has been replaced by the crazed loner Iraq vet and America, thankfully, is rejecting those films.

I'm not coming down on anyone who liked this particular film. That is your right. But for a very long time now Hollywood has always been obsessed with attacking the military and our government. They love to do it.

Meanwhile, films like AIR FORCE ONE, which are the opposite, are huge hits. There are many examples of films about heroes that turn out to be blockbusters and rightly so.

Me... I want to celebrate our heroes.

Funny but I came away from this movie having even more regard for the americans put in harm's way than I did before I watched it.

I enjoyed the movie, but I thought the ending was overly dramatic. There wasn’t any need to go there. I thought the point had been made long before and would have been better served by not going to a setting that had no basis in reality; the scene never happened. Having said that, whether people like it or not, the movie deals with the realities of war.

Collateral damage: The murder of Richard Davis

Here is a rare interview by Richard Davis’ father.

This movie is not Oliver Stone. It's not revising the history of the Kennedy assassination. It never pretends to be anything except a fictional story which was inspired by something which did happen.

The final comment made with the image of that flag is actually what the filmmaker wanted us to take home from his film. And that message is now even so much more timely than it was in 2007. The message transcends politics and partisanship.

Just wondering Matt, have you ever been in the service? I enlisted in the USMC in 1968 and I've been working with the military ever since. I just have to make a comment reference your comment which I have placed in bold above. To say Hollywood has always been obsessed with attacking the military and our government is BS. Perhaps if you had stated it as "Hollywood is obesessed with showing the general public the abuses which occur in the military more so than the good things which happen". I would not have taken offense. Believe me, Sh*t like that happens all the time and is covered up. Don't pertend it doesn't happen and that all Hollywood wants to do is make the military look bad.

Yes, there are many brave and wonderful people who serve our country in the military but there are also many unworthy, a**holes and corrupt people as well. Many things which have been covered up we would not know about if it had not been for Hollywood. If you want I will supply with a list of coverups which have been proven and would not have been brought to light if it had not been for Hollywood and the so called "Liberal Press"!

The general public has no clue what goes on in the military. Do I have to remind you of recent events which took place right here in NC concerning a couple of pregnant military spouses? I guess if Hollywood were to make a movie about that you would say that were making the military look bad.

Hollywood does not make the military look bad, bad people in the military make the military look bad! People trying to cover their a** by covering up sh*t that should not have happened make the military look bad. I can go on and on but bring it to me in a PM and we will discuss this in depth because you have touched a very sensitive nerve with me. The military is not all apple pie and the American way, believe it or not there is a lot of propaganda put out by our government playing on peoples patriotism to make it look like all service personnel are Heros.

Airboss, thank you for your service, Sir.

IAM4UK, that you for your comment and please (you and everyone else) excuse me for jumping on a soapbox...

thank you for the post Airboss. in my personal experience I've rarely heard a marine or any enlisted person speak in any other terms than that of the person you were addressing in your post.

I thank you for posting a viewpoint that was Grey and not B/W.

I thought this movie wasn't all that heavy handed regarding the millitary, and tried to focus on Jones's character which was portrayed superbly by him. I agree that Hollywwod don't try to make the military look bad, but they never go out of their way to focus on the many good deeds they do even in this war either. Of course the corrupt press won't do it so why would the entertainment industry do it. It is all to obvious however where the American people stand when it comes to films that overly negative on people in uniform, but as I said this movie is worthy for their attention IMO.

The film brings us the human losses that we all suffered as a nation.

Working as an IT consultant to the army, this is a true American film, regardless of political bent. The military is not the bad guy; it's the people on top who sent them there but never served.

I would recommend it but obviously not for its "entertainment" value, but thought provoking.

Tommy Lee Jones is a patriot.

Its well worth seeing, great film. good story.

I think most people understand that the guys that instigated this tried like hell (and succeeded) to get out of military deployment when young with college furloughs, Air National Guard, etc.
Definitely a film worth seeing, TLJ is excellent (one of his finest moments).