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In the Valley of Elah
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Date  Helpful Rating 8 out of 8 users found this helpful  in the valley of elahPosted: 12/22/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by HRH672 Tommy Lee Jones deserves an Academy Award for his emotional, yet subtle, performance of Hank in In The Valley of Elah. This is probably the best performance he has ever given us on film. It is also one of the best performances I've seen any actor deliver in a long while.
Unimaginative people will think that this is an antiwar, antimilitary and anti Iraq War film. I beg to differ.
This is a movie about absent fathers and the consequences of emotional repression.
Hank's emotional repression makes him an absent father when his distraught son calls him from Iraq. Hank's "stiff upper lip" philosophy blocks his ability to truly "hear" his son's pain and confusion. Hank is unable to reach out to his son at a pivotal moment in his son's life, ultimately leading to a brutal and tragic result.
Charlize Theron plays a single mother whose own young son is literally fatherless. The emotionally-repressed Hank is visibly stiff and uncomfortable around him even as he searches for common ground.
We learn that Hank is far from perfect - he can be judgmental and racist. But Hank learns from his mistakes and becomes a better man.
Without giving the ending of the movie away - in case you haven't seen it - Hank's display of the flag is not, in my opinion, anti-war, anti-military or anti-American - it is Hank's own personal distress call regarding the loss of his son and Hank's signal to us all to come to the aid of all of the other fatherless children we encounter - with love, respect, courage and humanity - regardless of race or creed.
This movie provokes thought on many levels and is very much worth seeing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful  Pretty Good FilmPosted: 10/14/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by Anonymous I was never bored for a second in this film. The one downside for me was that I felt the murder mystery wasn't especially original, and I kept thinking "Haven't I seen this before?" I did like the overall theme that war is very very messy, because I am sure it is. (Admittedly, I have never been in one, and I have the greatest respect for those who have and for all of our military men and women). The final shot of the film is rather devastating and lasting. I was not a fan of Haggis' "Crash", but I did think this is a far better film. I felt the acting was superb. For some reason this reminded me of the great Viet Nam film "Coming Home." It will be interesting to note how this film looks 30 years from now. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful  Offended by this moviePosted: 10/12/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by chykcha1 Our soldiers are EVIL...That is the message of this very mediocre movie. Oh, of course, some snap under pressure, but to imply that it is so wide spread, that they just kill each other to watch them die, that they torture prisoners for the pleasure of it is just unacceptable. Don't spend your money to be so offended! I should have read the reviews before I bought the tickets. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful  Haggis from HaggisPosted: 10/8/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by gidon1004 Many of the movie's settings are in a hash-house. This is apropos since Haggis is attempting here to serve up some warmed-over haggis: to wit, the storyline is, basically, "all wars are hell, where nothing's won but lost innocence." Hell, Haggis even attempts to argue that this pertains to King David in his youth against Golliath!
This bunker-diving movie's dialogue is so old it cakes about the edges of the mouth of a superb actor like Tommy Lee Jones. Not only is Haggis's direction as insipid and uninspired as any of his TV work, it appears as all the scenes were shot on the backlot of a TV set. ("Walker, Texas Ranger?" "Love Boat?") I'd be shocked if there were more than ten exteriors used in the whole film.
Any "mystery" in this story will be solved even by a TV mystery buff inside of the first four minutes. The rest of the movie is one l-o-n-g yawn. In fact (I kid you not!) a middle-aged woman (she was four seats down and four seats over from me, so I couldn't poke her) snored throughout the last forty-five minutes of the matinee I attended. No, it's not a sleeper, it's a sleep-inducer.
The story and dialogue are so cliche-riddled that Haggis has no qualms in hanging from the flagpole that old bit about white male cops being bumbling fools. This is whether he's attacking US military (Fort Rudd CID) or civilian (NM detectives) cops. Yes, by skewing the movie so as to curry favor with fellow Mercedes-driving pseudo-leftists, all flag-waving done here is for "retreat at any cost...if the US is involved."
Haggis also whitewashes all the male characters as sexist. One lowdown male even accuses the lone female detective in the whole story of having slept her way into their squad. The fact that, indeed, this explains how she got in detectives did surface the sole surprise: how did this escape Haggis, let alone Hollywood's leftist censors and editors? Was this review helpful? Sign In 2 out of 2 users found this helpful  Rodney23Posted: 10/7/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by Rodney235 The negative reviews say more about the movie viewers. The ending would be confusing if you missed early in the movie what was said about the flag being upside--a disaster. I saw this as an appropriate ending. This Iraq war is a mess and disaster--a suitable conclusion for this movie. This movie had to be followed closely to get its meaning. It is not an action movie which offers little in content to movie goers. I enjoyed the acting because it definitely had a sad message for parents who's sons or daughters are in Iraq and what can possibly happen to them. It was a emotionally moving film and a movie were the movie goer can not be distracted and must focus to follow the dialogue between the actors. This was evident with viewers did not understand the ending. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful Title has nothing to do with filmPosted: 10/6/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by machnicht A True ZERO, just more left wing babble with no semblence of honesty or balance.
Dont waste your money. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful zeroPosted: 10/5/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by j2q0 zero, more left wing hollywood crap, nearly couldn't sit through it. Actors had no chemistry, unbelievable plot, poorly cast. would give a zero if I could. Save you time and money. This should do well at the razzies. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful In The Valley of ElahPosted: 9/28/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by Marine972 Tommy Lee Jones character was a career military man who lost his first son in a helicppter crash and the second son also.He waqs all military and he talked his sons into going into the military thinking that it was the thing to do.In the end he realized that Iraq was killing our sons in more ways than death.In the end when he put the flag up backwards he was telling everyone that this nation is in trouble. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful Maybe worth a DVDPosted: 9/26/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by Ripleyfish Well acted, Mr. Jones seemed very believable as a career Army Sgt. I kept waiting for a decent plot twist or something intriguing to occur but it never happened. Fairly slow plot. The last scene was better left out. Mr. Jones character NEVER would have disgraced himself in that manner. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful Wait for DVDPosted: 9/26/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by toconn5454 Painfully boring. This film did not get up my political ire either way. Tommy Lee acts almost RainMan-like with some of his early drab responses. Couldn't wait for it to be over and the last scene was just 'off'. Wait for a slow rental season to get this one. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful In The Valley of ElahPosted: 9/25/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by sgthollywood0 Enoyed the movie until the final scene... Made no sense and stole a outstanding preformance by Mr. Jones... Strong preformances by all the cast but again...last scene so goes against Lee's charactor and story line that after viewing myself and fellow viewers felt robbed... Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful a must-seePosted: 9/23/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by cookie19191 The acting was suberb, the plot intense, maybe a little long but definitely worth seeing! Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 1 users found this helpful Another political moviePosted: 9/21/2007A review of In the Valley of Elah by emanon220 As the critic says "heavy handed".
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