Review of Thank You for Your Service (2017) by Corrielynn G — 26 Oct 2017

A VETERAN'S TAKE ON THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, FOR VETERANS: (Spoilers).

I'M A CAPITALIST.

You and I have the powerful ability to up-vote or down-vote something with our wallets and through word-of-mouth. Which is essentially why I'm writing this. From the relentless string of trailers showing up in my Youtube feed and the team behind the film, I decided Thank You For Your Service seemed to be the type of film that was making an earnest attempt at telling a genuine military story, so for that reason it was worth $12 to see it on preview night.

I WAS RIGHT.

I honestly believe the team and the actors involved in creating this film genuinely want to tell The Veteran Story. The 5 main-ish cast do an outstanding job of portraying the boilerplate characters veterans are sure to recognize on every military installation in the country:

Miles Teller/Adam Schumann: Big hearted, intelligent, and dedicated infantryman who, through circumstance, comes home with a fair amount of survivor's guilt.

Haley Bennett/Saskia Schumann: Perfect/badass military wife, raising 2 kids while her husband serves our country and just wants to hold everyone together.

Beulah Koale/Solo: Infantry/light-machine gunner(?) with TBI / PTSD / probably some survivor's guilt and just wants to get back in the fight.

Scott Haze/Michael Adam Emory: The brother with pre-mature evacuation who's as grateful to be alive as he is broken.

Joe Cole/Will Waller: Young grunt who (SURPRISE!) comes home to an empty house and a frozen bank account.

(Side note) Amy Schumer plays the dependapotomous of a fallen soldier. It's actually really kind of meta, because you're basically as surprised to see her in the beginning of the movie as Miles Teller's character is. Keeping true to form, she steals the lines of every generic thing anyone has ever said to someone with survivor's guilt near the end of the movie. Her lack of screen time ensures she doesn't completely ruin the film.

SEVERAL THINGS ABOUT THIS MOVIE FEEL GENUINE.

From the characters already mentioned who seem like a dude you knew once, to the behavior they exhibit (mostly, see below), to the lines at the VA, a significant portion of this movie seemed like it could have been shared over beers in front of the barracks or around a camp fire at a veterans retreat. There's not a scene in this movie that feels like the dude at the bar exaggerating his time overseas, or even some POG re-telling a story he heard as his own, which any story portrayed by non-veteran actors risks becoming.

THE SCENE THAT "PULLED ME OUT" OF THE STORY.

There's a scene in Solo's apartment in which he's playing some war-based console game. His pregnant wife gets a phone call and walks away from the lit stove. Apparently, the mix of the video game and the smell of something burning makes Solo completely lose his shit. I can see how that could be a thing that happens in real life. What caught me off guard was how un-controlled and un-directed Solo's "rage" seemed to be. He starts by flipping a table but then just starts kicking and punching and elbowing random shit. If his actions would have been directed at a particular thing or even area, it would have been a very compelling scene.

Instead, I was left to wonder why he was wasting his energy randomly attacking a hall closet. It's like they couldn't decide whether he was having a combat related hallucination or just really pissed at his wife for burning dinner. I should have been in awe, instead I was confused.

SEVERAL THINGS ABOUT THIS MOVIE FEEL 'DONE ALREADY'.

I appreciate that this film is trying to earnestly tell a true story about a group of real people. I also hope that this film brings something good for the real people it attempts to portray and that they're happy about the outcome. At the same time, I'm personally getting kind of the every-veteran-is-broken montage that seems to be coming out of Hollywood.

The same way I'm starting to avoid every story with the "Eevil CEO as Villain" storyline, I'm getting wary of the template in which every veteran is broken and every sheepdog regrets killing.

You know what? I served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I killed some bad dudes, and I witnessed some good dudes fall. I've tasted that cocktail of equal parts carbon and blood. I don't regret my service. I don't regret killing bad guys. I wish I could be back in the fight but I don't lose sleep over it.

I've seen over a hundred movies and shows with the damaged sheepdog who resents killing. You know what I've never seen? The story of the warfighter who slayed terrorists, lived to tell about it, and enjoys a happy life. I'd recognize that guy. I could relate to that character. I'd love, for once, for civilians to hear the story of the dude who killed a bunch of terrorists and now he manages a credit union in a town you've never heard of.

Dear Hollywood: I fucking love killing bad guys; It's my happy place. I'm not going to murder my family or become a masked vigilante. It's okay to like killing scumbags. It's not okay to act like people like me don't exist.

CONCLUSION.

As I said in the very beginning, as long as creators are genuinely trying to tell honest stories about our veteran community and the heroes within, I will support them with my wallet, and I hope others will too. This is a well-told true story with a positive message. Despite my personal lack of appetite for more tales of the broken veteran, it's a great film I think we should support and I recommend you see it.