Poor acting ambushes a mediocre story.
This film was a piece of poorly acted, anti-war propaganda designed to vilify the evil US government from damned near opening sequence to final credit. Not once did we find a positive veteran character, seemingly the entire unit returns from Iraq a bunch of drunk, wife-beating baby-killers. Yes, if you are a veteran of any war or forward action, don’t even waste your time on this piece of crap. I was disappointed to see some of my more favored actors lent their credit to this film [Ciarán Hinds and Josef Sommer], while Channing Tatum from the epic Step Up was so terrible in it, at times he fumbled over his lines so much it smacked of S.E.R.E. training where you modify your speech patterns to transmit subtle messages of resistance to assure your comrades you haven’t been broken.
The acting was so bad in some scenes I was actually waiting to hear cut. Leading lady, if you want to call her that, Abbie Cornish, looked like she was a kid playing pretend in every scene – seemingly enjoying her terrible attempt at a Texas drawl. Many of the actors performances came across that way to me, plastic, molded in some kind of pretense or make-believe – rarely did I truly empathize with them.
At first I thought this movie was a contract film, where the actors had to work for the studio, as good little soldiers (forgive the blatant pun) essentially Hollywood’s version of a stop-loss. But, then I remembered, this film coincided directly with the surge – so I imagine the studio wanted to release it quickly and the scenes had to stick, even the more terrifically terrible ones.
If I seem harsh, I am, bitter even at this pandering to fear and showing nothing but the darker side of the US military. No one forced any of these people to sign up, there is no draft and the stop-loss spectre was surely something talked about in the hooches in Iraq. If you don’t want to serve, no one is forcing you . . . yet. War is not a game to be played when it is convenient, war is hell. But, the film wasn’t completely a waste of time, as I gleaned some vague concepts through the churlish acting. Sometimes the paths we choose open hatches while others slam shut in stifled silence. As we endure the pains of redemption for those misguided journeys – we grow with our comrades by our side.
To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods? – Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay
