In the valley of elah

We went to the movies today and saw In the Valley of Elah.
I picked it because it had three and a half stars and it was just a compelling movie.
Tommy Lee Jones plays a father of a soldier who has gone AWOL a week after he has returned from Iraq. And he goes to find him.

The acting was great. It seemed like there was not much dialogue - but so much was expressed in face - both Tommy Lee Jones very weathered and sad face and Charlize Theron's beautiful and troubled face. She played a detective who worked with him to find the son.

I don't want to talk about the plot - all I can say is that this movie depicted some of the toll of war - the dehumanization that happens to the soldiers who were put into horrific situations in Iraq and came home changed.

I can't begin to express the sadness that I felt at the end of the movie. The soldiers who were depicted all seemed so young - as so many are. Oh, I don't even know what to say except the obvious - that I wish wilth all my heart that we had never gone into that country and I wish that we could get out tomorrow. The fact that even the democratic candidates running for president were unwilling to make commitments to getting us out in less than 4 years is just heartbreaking and frustrating.

This movies was about the war and showed very little of the war in it. The truth for me - as for I imagine most people - is that my knowledge of war comes more from movies than anything else. I remember watching The Deer Hunter, Coming Home and Platoon which were all about the Viet Nam war. I think Platoon probably convicted me of the hell of war more than any movies I ever saw. I can still remember watching the soldiers set fire to the village with Samuel Barber's musiic (elegy or something?) in the background. Ever since, whenever I hear that music I think of VietNam.

Anyway, I am glad I saw this film. I hate that we are in Iraq.