Review of In the Valley of Elah (2007) by Bogdan C — 08 Jul 2009

Understated and,at times,tedious but an excellent film for a thinking,reflective audience.Many have wondered why the movie did'nt receive a wider release... it is possibly a great film overshadowed by the extraordinary year in film that was 2007.

After watching it now twice, I see that so many of the "survivors" of deployment(s) to Iraq are haunted by the obliteration of societal and personal ethics,morals upon being there and the primitive,heartless,black humor numbness required to survive a worldview turned upside down. Is it easy to resume a "normal life" after witnessing and participating in the horrors of war and surviving/carrying out a "successful" mission?

Other films have dealt with this topic in more graphic and disturbing fashions-The Deer Hunter;Full MetalJjacket;Apocalypse Now etc all constitute an emotional kick in the guts-a very visceral audience experience. This film though takes the understated road-examining the walking wounded "survivors" who come back mere shells of themselves...They have been irrevocably changed-without focusing on severed limbs but the experience of severed psyches and anomie. The film also makes an excellent point in having the two "lost " sons of an ex-military man-who has a first hand knowledge of the atrocites against integrity and values that is war. A son calls his father and pleads with him to come home-he knows why and responds with the standard "its only nerves". The film shows that fear is perhaps the least insidious element to those who "go" and stay alive,protect their commrades etc.

This film is a good example of the transformation in war related films and will be hard to match. A truly horrifying question is how much more destructive war was to the drafted boys who had no choice to go during conscription but were torn between not wanting to appear cowardly or "betray" their country. The upside down,permanently "up there" flag was an incredible final statement.