"STOP-LOSS"
Starring Ryan Phillippe,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum,
Abbie Cornish
Released: March 28, 2008

WATCH THE TRAILER

A tolerable enough movie, with a good performance by Ryan Phillippe. But in order to have a wider appeal, the film refrains from carrying a message that is too political, which may be its downfall.

IN A TIME of no draft, what would you do if your country expected you to put your life on the line again and again even after you thought your enlistment was up?

“Stop-Loss,” starring Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, and Abbie Cornish, tells the fictional story of Sgt. Brandon King (Phillippe) and his small group of soldiers returning home after their tour of duty in Iraq.

As the soldiers try to settle back into their civilian lives in rural Texas, King finds out that he has been “stop-lossed,” or caught a contract loophole that allows service members to be sent back to fight again after their tours have been completed.

The movie begins with a “highlight reel” of sorts, full of short violent clips, shot with jerky camera angles meant to make the viewer feel as if one of the soldiers was standing around recording everything on the ground with a camcorder.

This homegrown effect is slightly offset, however, by the amazing editing job done by the filmmakers, which makes it somewhat unbelievable that the whole clip was compiled by an actual soldier.

In fact, the soldiers themselves look too good to be true. When their faces (particularly the face of the mind-numbing “Step Up” saga’s pretty boy, Tatum) aren’t streaked with blood or covered in sort-of-convincing gore, they appear with flawless skin and perfectly sculpted eyebrows.

While soldiers would understandably be in good physical condition, being in a combat zone would not necessarily rid them entirely of scars or acne. This was, however, not entirely surprising, given that the movie was put out by MTV Films.

The film then moves on to show King leading his men to chase several enemy combatants who tried a drive-by shooting at their military checkpoint. The Americans wind up being ambushed in an alley, which leads to several prolonged minutes of shooting, explosions, blood, screaming, deaths, and heroic rescues, which only questionably demonstrate the horrors of war.

The film’s overall message and portrayal of the Iraqi people is somewhat debatable. While the audience is shown just as many insurgent fighters as innocent civilians, Iraqis only appear surrounding the specific incident of the ambush, shortly before the men return home. Since only one scene takes place in Iraq, it would be hard to argue that the film is intentionally demonizing Iraqis, but the reaction would depend largely on the sensibilities of the viewer.

The men soon return to a welcome-back parade in their hometown of Brazos, where King is honored with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Senator Orton Worrell (Josef Sommer), a politician with whom King evidently had some connection beforehand, offers the war hero his help whenever it is needed.

The film then delves into a party scene complete with romanticized Texan stereotypes, involving a lot of beer drinking, dancing to country music, pretty blonde girls with accents, and brawls.

The soldiers try to get used to being back with their families and loved ones. King heads to the nearest military base to formally end his career, only to find out that he is scheduled to be shipped back to Iraq in less than a month.

Understandably angry, he utters a few inflammatory phrases like “F*** the president!” and is dragged off to the stockade, only to make another heroic escape. King, now AWOL, has to find a way out of his next tour of duty while being chased by the law and the military.

To make matters worse, King’s friends are falling apart post-combat. They drink heavily, carry guns, and drive — all at once, leading to several run-ins with the legal system.

Their significant others no longer understand them. King’s best friend, Shriver (Tatum), becomes so emotionally distanced from his fiancé that he signs up for another tour, after seeing no other future for himself that he can “take pride in.”

One of King’s men, Rico Rodriguez (Victor Rasuk), is horribly maimed and must deal with the suffering of all those around him as he lies in a veteran’s hospital. King and all of his men are subject to ghastly flashbacks and overwhelming guilt regarding their actions during the war.

King flees on a road trip, driven by Shriver’s girlfriend, Jeanie (Cornish). They plan to find the senator in Washington, in order to ask for his assistance in getting King out of his next tour. While the viewer is supposed to want King to be able to get out of his service, it is hard to feel much compassion for one who is depending so heavily on connections with higher-ups in Washington that most soldiers would not be lucky enough to have.

However, the senator’s secretary informs King that no politician in Washington could possibly meet with an AWOL soldier.

King then meets the family of one of his men who was killed in Iraq, and he contemplates joining a lawsuit being filed against the Army by stop-lossed soldiers. This idea is dismissed after King decides that no judge would rule against the U.S. Army. King is then left to choose whether to flee the country and start a new life without his family, or return to Iraq and possibly be killed.

The film would be worth seeing for fans of action movies, and it intersperses enough dramatic elements to be tolerable for people who aren’t necessarily fans of that genre. Phillippe’s portrayal of King’s dilemma is well done, and the plotline is extremely relevant to our time.

However, in order to have a wider appeal, the film refrains from carrying a message that is too political, which may be its downfall.

“Stop-Loss” was directed and co-written by Kimberly Peirce, who came to prominence in 1999 with “Boys Don't Cry,” her award-winning film about the life and murder of transgendered Brandon Teena.

Peirce's younger half brother, Brett, enlisted in the Army after 9/11, and it was through Brett that she learned of soldiers being forced to return to Iraq for a third, fourth, and even fifth tour of duty.

“Stop-Loss” could have easily taken the position that stop-losses are unfair but soldiers should suck it up and go anyway. Or the film could have maintained that leaving the country and everyone you love is still better than getting killed if you don’t want to make that sacrifice. Or it could have simply argued that stop-losses are unfair but necessary without a draft.

Instead, the film constantly flips between the first two positions, and in the end leaves us with far more questions about honor, love, obligation, and responsibility than it answers. Whether that ambiguity is a good thing is up to the viewer.

“Stop-Loss” is currently playing at the Goodrich Savoy 16, 232 W. Burwash, Savoy, and the Beverly 18, 910 Meijers Drive, Champaign.

“STOP-LOSS” AT A GLANCE

• Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish
• Directed by: Kimberly Peirce
• Written by: Kimberly Peirce, Mark Richard
• Genre: Drama, War, Action
• Rated: R
• Runtime: 113 min.
• Release date: March 28, 2008
• Summary: A young Army combat veteran is told he must return to Iraq on another tour of duty even though his enlistment is up.
• External sites: IMDb entry, official site