In the Valley of Elah

In the Valley of Elah by writer/producer Paul Haggins came heavily recommended by my movie vendor. Of course, Haggis is a familiar name associated with such works as Clint Eastwood -directed Million Dollar Baby (of which he wrote the screenplay) and, essentially, Crash which he co-wrote and directed

The story itself concerns a retired military policeman Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) who sets out to find his son who had recently been returned from Iraq and now declared AWOL. He is later informed that a body found burnt and dismembered on field is his son’s. Through the help of a reluctant ally, the police detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), he embarks on unraveling of the circumstances that leads to the grisly death of his son, specialist Mike Deerfield. He will soon find out that his son had not been ‘a good boy’ as he has wrongly assumed to his heartbroken wife, he used drug and shouted obscenities at women at a strip club.

Hank and Emily, in due course, discover the truth about the murder, despite attempts by the army investigators to sweep it under the rug. Mike had been stabbed several times, cut into pieces and burnt by his mates –fellow members of his infantry- with whom he had returned from Iraq.

This movie is a serious indictment on the effects of war on the psyche of the individual, especially the soldier, who participates in it. Not a war film per se, but it brings home the cruel aspects of war and how the violence and shattered humanities reflect the distorted souls of men turned killing machines (it calls to mind that great movie, Full Metal Jacket). This message is well drawn home with the scene of confession when Penning describes what transpired the night Mike was killed. The cold-bloodedness of the murder and its narration call attention to what has been described as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The roots of this disorder are partly portrayed in the snatches of mobile phone-captured videos Hank retrieved from Mike’s personal effects at the army quarters. Soldiers were trained to be dispassionate in killing enemies be them children or women. So the casualness with which official Penning narrates the gruesome murder is both shocking and instructive. It reflects heavily in a mixture of dread, outrage and awe in Emily’s trembling voice after Penning informs the sitting that the group had gone to a chicken joint after dismembering and incinerating Mike - “you were hungry?”

The profundity of this movie revolves around things suggested however. Hank on his journey to army base after his son had been declared AWOL, sees a flag hung upside down and stops to correct the mistake telling the man from El Salvador that a flag hung upside down indicates a distress call, a SOS from a nation under siege. But after learning the manner and circumstances of his son’s death, he goes back to the flag and hangs a threadbare one sent to him by his son upside down, back. Haggis has been criticized for agitprop in this movie, but the political sentiment portrayed to a tragic effect here, is hugely popular even in the USA before the invasion of Iraq. Similarly, the scene where the battle of Elah between David and Goliath is narrated to the young child of Emily as a bedtime story, casts a multifaceted metaphor on this story. Is America been portrayed as the giant fell by a slingshot? Are the young soldiers dispatched to Iraq likened to little David who was let into the harm’s way by the king? David, Emily’s boy in the movie wonders aloud to his mother why the king allowed David to confront the giant, despite the obvious danger. Agitprop? Even a kid can see the outrage of needless human sacrifice.

One of the several mirrors this movie holds for moral reflection is in the character of Hank, a typical ex-soldier who typifies the traditional values of patriotism and faith of the old-guard in America’s preservation ala McCain. The alarm in the veteran-like countenance of Hank is only too visible upon sighting the accident of the Flag but conversely so is the desolation upon his return to wrong the flag he has earlier righted. A fastidious man at the beginning of his search, Hank’s progressive ruination is reflected after he is aware of his son’s fate in the shambles of his hotel room which reflects the desolation inside, despite his agonizingly cool mien. He despairs because he has placed so much confidence and faith in a system that will fail him and cost him his sons (his older son is said to have been killed earlier in military service).

I am not sure if Clint Eastwood, who had been approached for the role of Hank in the movie before Jones, could pull off the kind of effect Tommy Lee Jones does with his extraordinary performance in this movie. The tightly drawn, weather-beaten face, the sparsely displayed emotions on that face which, however, seem to rip through his body like an invisible spasm. He plays well with emotions the way only a veteran could. Stellar performances from both Jones and Theron. A well told story despite its thinly veiled political protest.