Stop-Loss

Stop-Loss_360P

This is one of those so-called "Hollywood Social Commentary" films that wants to have it both ways. And believe me, in this film, both ways are clichéd and stereotypical. STOP-LOSS is a 21st Century John Wayne Film dealing with some anti-war sentiment but clearly ending on the note that "If you are a MAN in today's society, you get your act together and march off to war with your buddies." In many ways the film was a great sequel to TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE as it portrayed a military equally as insane and out of control, a quasi FRAT PARTY/ANIMAL HOUSE extravaganza mixed in with a Texas Red Neck world of repressed homo-erotic proofs of masculinity. This movie had it all in one scene after another of clichéd imagery. And then rebellious military deserter Ryan Phillippe goes on a "Road Trip" with best friend's girlfriend, an artificial storyline manipulation to visit families of dead servicemen, maimed soldiers in military hospitals, etc. and finally to broach the issue of fleeing to Canada or Mexico. But male honor and patriotism win out in the end, as all freshly scrubbed and handsome, he rides off into the sunset on a bus with his buddies back to Iraq and a world that a few minutes before he assured everyone he could never again tolerate. FULL METAL JACKET meets SANDS OF IWO JIMA . But in the end, John Wayne rides again! And a Hollywood Blockbuster ultimately gets to keep both sides of its audience in the palm of its hand…….at least it would like to think so. As far as I was/am concerned, just take me back to the more convincing reality of IN THE GARDEN OF ELAH.

Stop-Loss was one of the best drama movies I have ever seen.I thought that it described perfectly what the war is really like. In my opinion this was a great movie for many different reasons. The people that keep saying this movie is stupid and boring need to get a life. I don't think that some people are mature enough for a movie like this. The people that say this movie didn't have enough action are correct. The only thing was though is that their didn't have to be any action. This movie was to show you what the war is really like. First of all it says it is a drama. This movie was so far the saddest movie I have seen yet this year. It was filled with a ton of meaning and heart. This goes to show you what the war can really do to someone after they return or well they are in it. The acting was extremely well acted between all the characters. The whole entire cast was brilliant. When I saw this cast the first thing I said to myself is I have to see this movie. Ryan Phillipe was the best out of all the actors in this movie. I think that he should get nominated for best actor in this film. Channing Tatum did a great job as well. This was probably in my opinion his best role so far. The messages in this movie were great as well. When I had left the theatre all I could keep thinking of was this movie. This movie seriously changed the way I look at war now. I feel so much more for the soldiers now that in the war. Overall this was one of the best movies of 2008 so far.

Stop-Loss (2008) **** (out of 4) Hard hitting, Anti-Iraq film has Ryan Phillippe playing a U.S. soldier who leaves his final mission in Iraq but soon learns he's been stop-lossed, which means the government can break your original contract and send you back to Iraq. Phillippe refuses to go back so he goes AWOL and hits the road with his best friend's girl (Abbie Cornish) while trying to figure out what to do. Over the past few years there have been countless films protesting the Iraq war and all of them have been fair (Lions for Lambs) to really poor (Redacted) but this one here is clearly the best of the bunch but it's also one of the best war movies out there and clearly one of the best of 2008. The movie has a strong stance against the war but it's certainly Pro-Soldier and the film bleeds with love for the young men putting their lives on the line each day. The film opens with a scene in Iraq where the soldiers are working a checkpoint when a group of thugs show up with guns a soon a big battle breaks out and leads to tragedy. I really enjoyed what director Peirce did here by instead of focusing on the violence she clearly wants the viewer to see that these are kids doing this fighting. She makes it clear to us that it's kids doing the shooting and being shot at, which is something people and the media seems to forget. The Anti-Iraq stuff is handled very well and never becomes too preachy unlike many other recent films. I think the film's one problem is that it really should have ran at least an hour longer because the movie not only looks at Phillippe's situation but also two of his friends who are dealing with their own battles on returning home. The film is a lot like The Deer Hunter, a film that took three hours to tell its story, and I think that long running time would have worked well here. The two friends play a major part in the story and an emotional one so I think their stories could have been pushed out a bit further. The performances in the film are all rather remarkable and this is certainly the greatest work I've seen from Phillippe. I don't want to ruin anything but he has to go through all sorts of mental pain in the film and he pulls this off wonderfully well. I think Phillippe has always been a good actor but this film here pushes him to a great one. He really does give a strong, raw and highly emotional performance, which is the heart of the film. Cornish is also very good in her role as is Channing Tatum as the best friend. No matter where you stand on the actual war, that shouldn't keep you away from this film, which is quite original in how it tells its story and most importantly it does pay tribute to these kids who lost their lives on the battle field. This is a very strong and highly emotional film that pushes all the right buttons and really delivers.

As a big fan of Kimberly Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry," I went to a sneak preview of "Stop-Loss" with positive expectations. However, despite its good intentions, this film is a muddled mess. It cobbles together a narrative that feels false and arbitrary given the particular group of soldiers the story focuses on. A group of lifelong friends from a small Texas town (which is itself portrayed in about as clichéd as an outsider's imagination of a Texas small-town could be) come back and all suffer shell-shock and trauma, as one might expect. However, Ryan Phillippe's character, expecting to be finished with his duty, reacts to the news that he is being "Stop-Lossed" (sent back on another tour of duty) by instantly breaking from every fiber of his upbringing. In about 90 seconds, he is a different man, rebellious, ready to run. Soon he is picking fights and wobbling dangerously close to uncontrollable Rambo territory even as we are supposed to believe that he has an unassailably correct belief that he shouldn't be forced to go back no matter what the military says. Unfortunately Phillippe (who had seemed to be becoming a better actor in 2007's "Breach") tips his hand here and reveals his limited range (not to mention a horrifically fake sounding Texas twang). Phillippe's equally unbalanced yet more ra-ra lifelong bud is played with an even more limited range of emotions by former (though-should-probably-have-stayed-a) model Channing Tatum, who admittedly does have the good sense to avoid even attempting a Southern accent here. Even poor Joseph Gordon Levitt, who has proved himself an able and promising young actor in several recent films), is reduced to seeming tinny and unconvincing here. The paper-thin story sends Phillippe uselessly careening across the U.S. accompanied by his best friend's fiancée, an unconvincing device that accomplishes little. There are also lots of badly executed sequences of these fugitives driving and hiding, not to mention loads of clunky, repetitive dialogue that never gets us to the soul of these men who are supposedly suffering. In an example of unbridled directorial excess, the story even gets broken up several times by jarring, wholly unnecessary 'soldier videos' that supposedly mimic those created by the boots on the ground, but which look more professional than many music videos today and feel really inauthentic. Plus, they yank us out of the story again and again, and after awhile, it's hard to go back into it. The ending is doubly unsatisfying in that, after forcing these characters to do fairly extreme things that their real-life counterparts would not do, and after making it very clear that we are supposed to be viewing Phillippe as the beleaguered hero on a quest to right a wrong no matter what the consequences, the movie turns on its heels and abandons all that in a flash. The characters and the movie end up where they started, and the audience, who has been shoe-horned into viewing Phillippe's rebellion and journey as something to root for, are abandoned. The director has forced us to slog along on this narrative road for two hours, and as an emotional viewing experience, the ending (even if it is supposed to say something about the inassailability of the military machine) pulls the trap door on us. The director was present at a Q&A after the film, and she spoke about how she created these characters after talking to a lot of different real-life soldiers back from Iraq & Afghanistan. The film really feels like that -- and not in a good way. It is a patchwork of observations about the shell-shock of returning home without any real commitment to one set of lives. Peirce's "soldiers" are overstuffed amalgams who drink and yell and fight and shoot and even cry, but don't breathe.

I didn't really know what to expect from Stop Loss, it was just playing at the theater that I worked at and I figured I would go ahead and check it out. So I saw it last night and I have to say that this was seriously one of the most depressing movies of 2008. I went away from this movie just feeling so sad and extremely low, which threw me off on the film. I'm not a supporter of the war in Iraq, I do have 2 cousins and a few friends who are fighting this war and I hate it, so seeing this movie just reminded me even more of that hatred I have. See, the thing is, is that this movie is a reminder to most people why war is Hell and also why they hate what's going on. While I appreciated Kimberly's message to us and reminds us of the pain these soldiers are going through, the story just remains in a biased plot of the constant battle against terrorism. Brandon has just come home from Iraq and is just enjoying his Texas life with his best friend, Steve, and his other friends. They're drinking, flirting, and partying. But the war has ultimately gotten to them, they're hallucinating, hitting their wives, and are just going crazy. When Brandon is called for Stop-Loss, where he has to go back to Iraq when he was supposed to stay home, he understandably gets angry and runs for it. He tries to head for the border, but realizes that maybe his team needs him. Stop Loss is a decent movie and it does have a very powerful message, while I always agree that a war movie is going to be very deep, I think this movie went a little further and could have been lighter, but that's just my opinion, I would have done the story a little different. I also understand Kimberly's message, she meant well with this movie, I think it doesn't work as well as her movie, Boys Don't Cry, but Stop Loss is definitely worth a watch. Ryan Phillipe is becoming a fine actor and holds the film very well, Channing Tatum does alright, enough to keep the film going. The story is a little much, but I think this is one movie you're going to have to judge for yourself. 7/10

I really liked this movie. I wasn't looking for a bloody battle scene and there wasn't much of that expressed. Most of what was conveyed was the loss of friends in a situation that could happen to soldiers who march into harms way. Then the soldiers return home, back to the way things were? Their lives are not the same, and the people at home can't understand because they weren't there to see a friend die in their arms at the hands of some terrorist killers. My brother just retired from the Army. He volunteered in Iraq for 1 year. He safely returned home, but his life had changed from that moment he was in Iraq. He said they lost a few young men, and another returned home severely burned from a cocktail thrown into the vehicle. At 130 degrees, how can they keep the windows closed in a military vehicle with the engine off. Two men that died were young (18 and 20). I feel the young soldiers have not received enough training and are too young to deal with the stress of war. The movie had me thinking about the young men and women that barely have a year of training and next have RPGs hurling at them, roadside bombs, suicidal bombers walking into streets. How can anyone be trained to deal with that and be aware of it before it happens? I commend the different positions on war in this movie: 1) Soldiers who are willing to die for their families and country. 2) Soldiers who have served their country and feel they should have the choice to step down from their jobs. Stop-loss was something I never heard of until I saw the movie. How on earth can we say in the United States we have FREEDOM to choose if that privilege is removed when you enlist? It is like when you quit a job, move to another state, join a religion. FREEDOM to Choose! The Stop-Loss sanction nullifies the FREEDOM to step down after serving your country for 1 term or more. Do they think that will encourage people to sign up to serve in the armed forces if the contract removes their basic right of FREEDOM that we all hold so dearly. I was angry to hear soldiers are forced to return to serve multiple times. Many soldiers clearly need to stay home to recover and try to live a normal life instead of sending them back to die. It sounds as if these soldiers are no more than a body with a gun to send back into war. I would recommend seeing this movie!

I have two sons that have both been to Iraq and they don't know anyone that has had a stop-loss or come back so messed up like everyone of the guys in this movie. I was literally angry at the end of this movie. I am so very proud of both my sons and proud of every military man and woman that goes over or even remains here that is in the service. I don't know if this is a spoiler but I checked it because it tells some of the thoughts and actions of some of the actors. The parents and friends of the servicemen didn't even try to talk with them, they dropped their lives and ran with them. War is terrible and many lives are lost, but that is no reason to turn your back and run to Canada or Mexico. I am proud to be an American and stand beside keeping terrorists out of my country...

When I saw the preview, I thought it would be an accurate portrayal on how stop-loss affects soldiers. Unfortunately, it was a little off the wall in how it showed Brandon getting stop-lossed. In reality, stop-loss takes place 90 days prior to deployment and stays in effect until 90 days after the soldier returns. Each unit is given one year of "dwell time" in the US, which means they won't deploy during that period. The film's portrayal of Brandon getting stop-lossed only a week after he returned from Iraq to go to Iraq again for another tour a few weeks later was as realistic as shooting 100 rounds from an M4 without changing the magazine once. Also, with his actions after he was stop-lossed (saying f*** the President, going AWOL, etc...) he wouldn't have just went back to Iraq still a Staff Sergeant like he did at the end of the movie. He probably would have gotten a court-martial instead. Other than those things, it isn't a bad movie. Just inaccurate. I served three tours in Iraq already and I was stop-lossed for my second one. I knew I was stop-lossed over three months before I left, they didn't wait until two weeks before it was time to go to tell me I was stop-lossed. I made the decision to reenlist later on instead of getting out at the end of my second tour.

STOP-LOSS is a powerful film from the first frame to the last and delivers a story of our men (and women) who are serving in a war which many will not come home from. Why are we in this war? That is not the question here, but of our soldiers from states such as Texas who enlist and want to "make a difference" for their country and who now face a deadly enemy out to destroy them, maim them and send them back to the United States in coffins. STOP-LOSS gives us their stories, their nightmares and their brave attempts to assimilate back into a culture which many find alien, as well as, incoherent to what they faced in the battles of Iraq. What began IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH takes us to STOP-LOSS, and with a cast of young actors that is out of this world! Ryan Phillippe better be remembered at Oscar time, and Channing Tatum (wow, how you have STEPPED UP in this film!), to all the cast who brought home to the screen this film of what our troops have faced/face in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bravo, Kimberly Pierce for giving us this important film to show us what our troops today fear and contend with in war, and their return to the USA in what might be called COMING HOME meets THE DEER HUNTER, but shows you in STOP-LOSS, that "BOYS DON'T CRY", they just continue to serve in Iraq with bravery and valor.