Review of In the Valley of Elah (2007) by Chads. — 22 Feb 2008
Hank Deerfield(Tommy Lee Jones) is an analog man living in a digital world. He looks like a figure in an Edward Hopper painting as he stands at the copy machine. The truck Hank drives could've been an object parked out of frame in Hopper's signature work "Nighthawks", an oil on canvas, typical of the cinema-minded artist's obsession with people in relationship to their environment.
Hank tries. He can operate a computer. But the immodesty of our times often leaves him at a loss for words(e.g. the topless waitress, a septugenarian like him, at the diner bar). Time doesn't stand still, especially at an army base, even though the protocol, the haircuts, and the congeniality of the GIs remain the sam.
Looks, however, can be deceiving; as they say, you can't judge a book by its cover. Hank will come to learn that C.S. Lewis might be more knowable than his own flesh and blood. There are crashes, the same racial crashes between Whites and Hispanics like in "Crash", but it's the generational crash between the Iraqi war veterans and veterans from our fathers' wars that distinguishes "In the Valley of Elah" from this filmmaker's last hurrah.
An interpretation of the vivisected body that's discovered in the field could be construed as the analogue version of the soldier's digital form being pixelated to death by the unforgiving Iraqi sun.
Mike's body(and soul; because of his inhumane treatment towards the enemy) seems to be literally coming apart on his father's laptop. Hank can hardly recognize his own son. Because he's an analog man living in a digital world.
Hank Deerfield is the anti-"Walker: Texas Ranger".
This review of In the Valley of Elah (2007) was written by Chads. on 22 Feb 2008.
In the Valley of Elah has generally received positive reviews.
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