In the Valley of Elah (2008, DVD)

Very good film for the entire family. It had a story behind it. Bought it for my DVD libray. *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

This movie is so under the radar I almost missed it..The cast is superb the story line is a bit difficult to decipher at first,however it unravels it's self quite well..Charleze Theron is almost unrecognizable & Tommy Lee Jones has to play a very sad character..What I enjoyed the most about this movie is the fact that it was not over acted & it really hit a nerve,a new understanding about another side of what war is doing to our soldiers and why.

On the whole it is a emotional based movie about a real problem. The shear matter of fact and callous view of the soldiers is shocking at the very least. Keep in mind that this is just a movie and focuses on a dramatization of PTSS and the actors interpretation. However what is more telling is in the special features when a soldier interviewed stated how a survey to detect PTSS was given in Kuwait. The desire to go home was so great he stated that he, as I am sure countless others, answered the survey in a way to guarantee his going home. Can you blame these poor guys. My son served his tour of duty and all his pictures while there showed the stress he was enduring. The picture of him boarding the plane to leave said it all, the relief of coming home. The movie is without doubt thought provoking, especially the special features and interviews with the ex-soldiers.

I purchased this DVD as a fan of Tommy Lee Jones; although Charlize Theron is no slouch.:) Her role is dead serious and she does a fine job of it. Tommy Lee Jones just gets better and better. Great acting all around. Based on actual events where a young man returns from combat duty in Iraq only to go missing, even I was surprised a couple of times. We may not have to support the war; but we should always support the men and women thrown into harms way.

We had rented this movie and liked it so much, that we bought it. This is a great movie about what happens to our young men possible that have been to war. The scary thing is more of this happens and our government tries to cover it up. The make our young men go to war and subject them to these atrocities and then when something goes wrong that could make them look bad, they cover it up. People need to watch more of these movies and fight back. We don't need to be in any of these wars. A must see for anybody that has a loved one away fighting wars for this country.

This movie portends a fairly unsentimental examination of the way in which many of us define personal responsibility, the bargain some men forge to assume the mantle of manhood, the unanticipated consequences of the presumption of assuming we hear the people we love when they talk to us, and what exactly are the wages of the manhood, the misunderstandings, this war.
There's high currency here, one in which we all must pay and one in which we will never be able to compensate for.

Jones was absolutely amazing. If the film had not been one so difficult to watch, and politically polemic due to the integrity of the conclusion, he would have won an Oscar; the acting he did in this movie certainly called for one.
It's one of those movies that creep up on you, and by the end, it has you cornered because know that you have been a witness, you can only be complicit if you go on your merry way without taking some personal stand. It's impossible for any thoughtful person to see this movie and not be moved and forced to reconsider what responsibility we must assume as citizens, parents, human beings.

Tommie Lee is one of my favorites and he had an excellent performance in this one.
Very moving and heart touching.