Weekly Review -- Out with the old, in with the new

In honor of this week of transformation and general awakening, the opportunity is ripe to talk about a film which will hopefully soon represent a distant past; one that channels a political and social metamorphosis through the eyes of the new world, not unlike the milestones that stand before us today.


Stop-Loss (2008) -- Call it human nature. Call it instinct. No matter what it is, the fact remains that the cup of human history ranneth over with conflicts. The constant absence of peace gives way to another undeniable fact -- every war and battle that has ever occurred has been one of the favorite subjects of film, literature and endless discussions. The latest Iraq conflict is no different, spawning several movies to mixed reactions. Sargent Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has just returned home to Texas after a tour of duty. Ready to retire from the army, he spends some time adjusting to civilian life, along with fellow soldiers and friends, Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum). However, unexpected and disappointing news come Brandon's way when he learns from his commanding officer (Timothy Olyphant) that he has been stop-lossed -- ordered back to Iraq, due to the lack of new recruits -- and finds himself between his life and his duty. The problem with the film is the obvious tailoring of the story to speak to the MTV generation. Too preachy and explanatory at times, the movie suffers from the after-school-special syndrome, with the screenplay categorizing and spelling out too many of its elements. However, the relevance of the story, the dehumanizing details of the Stop-Loss policy and those of military regulations in general are at the essence of the piece. The most moving parts concern the political and economic desperation that forces many individuals to enlist, as well as the difficulty between reconciling memories of death and slaughter with the present reality of a world that does not necessarily understand the workings of a soldier's life. Phillippe draws a convincingly torn portrayal of a dutiful man, while Tatum and Levitt find depth in the roles of Brandon's friends, both lost outside the battlefield. Olyphant and Victor Rasuk provide great, albeit brief, turns as Brandon's tightly wound commanding officer and wounded peer, respectively. Although occasionally pedestrian, Stop-Loss makes for a fascinating vignette from a rather gloomy political era, one that has hovered like a ghost over the United States for eight years. Let us hope for rational thinking, educated strategizing and valuing the mind above statistics; above all, let us hope that the phantoms are at bay.

6/10