This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am and is filed under Action, Drama, Movie Reviews, NEW IN THEATER, S, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rob Brown, Channing Tatum, Victor Rasuk, Timothy Olyphant
Director, Kimberly Pierce, who has been conspicuously absent from Hollywood movie credits since her auspicious debut with Boys Don’t Cry, returns with a motion picture that gives us yet another reason to hate the war in Iraq: the back-door drafting of soldiers who have finished their tour. This controversial practice is called ‘stop loss’ and little question remains as to what side of the argument this film falls onto. The tone gets preachy from time to time, and the story never quite manages to turn the heat up to the boiling level. The acting is strong, as is the direction, but neither manages to distinguish itself beyond that, leaving the film mired in mediocrity.
Stop Loss opens win some intense war scenes, but quickly shifts gears from a war film into a drama about a group of gung ho soldiers that include Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe- that guy you’ve heard of and know from something, but have no idea what), and his best friend Steve (Channing Tatum, who you don’t know from anything). Both of these guys have put in their time and are glad to have done their duty, but are even more glad to be done. Steve is all set to marry Michelle (Abbie Cornish), and Brandon, well I can’t remember what Brandon’s plans are, but it doesn’t matter because he is informed that due to a clause in his contract, the army is allowed to keep him and send him back to Iraq. This is called Stop Loss and is exactly what they intend to do. Brandon feels betrayed and angry over this and has to decide what to do, while all of his army buddies have struggles of their own, as well.
If you are not tired of films that show us yet another problem with the whole Iraq, post 9-11, Bush situation, yet, then here is another related issue. This subject area has already been saturated by the CNN, news magazine television shows, and several Hollywood releases. It’s point is valid, but perhaps using a true story might have managed to give it the interest and impact that it lacked. Stop Loss is a good film that will vanish into obscurity as quickly as a presidential address.
