The Power Of Film...

As anyone who knows me maybe able to tell I am very much anti- war in most cases, yet I tend to keep a somewhat objective view thanks to my friends and family in the military. If there is one movie thus far that I feel everyone should see about this current war it is In The Valley of Elah. This is the most compelling war movie that has ever been made, simply because it touches home with every emotion and feeling a parent would go through when a son comes back from war, missing.
The movie centers around a soldier who comes back from Iraq only to be found murdered before he ever really made it home. His father spends time looking for who the real killer is. However, the most compelling part of this movie is not the fact that the murder happened and the person involved is found. No, it is the fact that this is the only movie that touches on the pain that a soldier will go through after coming home from war. It touches on how the American people do no understand that these men go through when they are at war and the emotional toll that it takes on them. The men in this movie lost control after coming home form war.
They are lost and disconnected from everything because lets face it a day home from war it is hard to get back to reality. This movie is not trying to make any political message that are too strong other than we need to take care of our men. We cannot any longer sit aside and say we support these men without anyone trying to understand the horrible things they go through.
This movie makes the reasons we go to war and the reasons that we fight crystal clear. The title of the film is a bible reference to the battle between David and Goliath. It was in the valley of Elah that David fought and stood face to face with what caused the most fear within him. The same goes with soldiers in this war, they fight, oddly in the Middle East as well, to face their fear and hopefully, like David, win it all in the end.
Powerful is the only word I can use to capture the emotional power of this and yes this whole blog may sound off, but I have the movie on at the moment and simply do not want to loss the emotion that it is giving off.
Was this war worth it, who knows in the end.
If there is anything I am taking from this movie is that when a flag is waved at half mass it means that there is some kind of distress... this movie ends with just that and god knows if that does not bring tears then there is just ice in your heart.