thromulator (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thromulator) wrote,@ 2007-12-30 10:04:00 |
|
Wherein Bob Thinks Too Much About Previews
So, Charlie Wilson’s War is a pretty good movie, all things considered, but what’s got me thinking is actually the Stop-Loss preview. Specifically, it’s got me thinking how surprisingly unsympathetic the film’s protagonist is.
So, Charlie Wilson’s War is a pretty good movie, all things considered, but what’s got me thinking is actually the Stop-Loss preview. Specifically, it’s got me thinking how surprisingly unsympathetic the film’s protagonist is.
Stop-loss is, of course, a shitty fucking deal. Yes, that’s a gross understatement given how much I use “fuck” in casual conversation, but I don’t see how that makes it any less true—stop-loss is the draft wearing a cheap wig and fake nose-and-glasses combo, and the draft is bad for everyone involved.
That said, Ryan Phillippe’s character Sgt. Brandon King nonetheless manages to come across less a betrayed soldier and more a petulant, unheroic brat in the preview. When King says to his father, “This family is done fighting this war,” his complaint is not that the war is unjust, but that he’s done his part and doesn’t want to do any more. That’s realistic as hell, sure, but it’s not a heroic trait: heroes are fundamentally unrealistic. Specifically, heroes are unrealistic in that they willingly expose themselves to more danger than they have to rather than run away because they’ve been treated unfairly.
That said, Ryan Phillippe’s character Sgt. Brandon King nonetheless manages to come across less a betrayed soldier and more a petulant, unheroic brat in the preview. When King says to his father, “This family is done fighting this war,” his complaint is not that the war is unjust, but that he’s done his part and doesn’t want to do any more. That’s realistic as hell, sure, but it’s not a heroic trait: heroes are fundamentally unrealistic. Specifically, heroes are unrealistic in that they willingly expose themselves to more danger than they have to rather than run away because they’ve been treated unfairly.
No doubt, the language to the effect that it’s the family that he’s worried about rather than his own hide helps mitigate King’s unheroic tendencies, but less so when you consider his observation that, “With a shortage of soldiers and no draft, they’re shipping back guys who are supposed to be getting out.” Again, there’s some concern for those other than himself, but the way the camera lingers on King when he says “and no draft,” the implication is pretty strong that he would rather see other people get drafted than go back to war himself. Considering that he volunteered to go to war in the first place, that’s pretty fucking cowardly right there. Moreover, when his father hands him a fake I.D., it becomes very clear that King really is only thinking for himself, or at least is thinking about himself moreso than the other characters, who are taking great personal risks to keep him from going back to war.
King’s unheroic treatment would be well and good if the preview decided to paint King as anything but a hero, but, alas, he is clearly meant to be a hero, otherwise the preview wouldn’t show him getting a Purple Heart and Hollywood wouldn’t have cast an attractive white male as him, had him hail from small-town Texas, or given him a conflicted love interest to come home to. Moreover, King is also clearly meant to speak for us—note, if you will, the trailer’s use of second-person perspective at the beginning. You fought for America. You fought for family. You fought for freedom. You gave everything. And the first face we see after “They want more” is King. Even more, [character] speaks, not just for all of us, but for all his family when he says, “This family is done fighting this war.”
But when King says to the politician guy who looks eerily like Ron Paul that he’s “always done what’s right, and this is wrong,” that’s when he goes too far. Now, he attempts not just to speak for you and his entire family, but for all that is right. King is thoroughly entitled to say he’s always done what he believes is right, but to say that he has, objectively, without fail, always done the right thing is outright hubris. And when he adds to that thought, “And this isn’t right,” the preview commits a cardinal sin of filmmaking: Show; don’t tell. If the central message of the film is that stop-loss is wrong, then it needs to show us that. Hell, it can even get away with a character saying so, so long as it isn’t King! If Ron Paul’s doppelganger had said, “This just isn’t right,” then the line would be fine. But it’s just wrong for King to say it, because where the hell does he get off saying that he’s always done what’s right anyway?
The problem of King being exactly who shouldn’t say a given line also plagues his “and no draft” speech: the explanation needs to come from another character—hell, maybe even Ron Paul’s doppelganger—for it to have the “They” effect the movie needs, or else it’s just King’s take on it. King, as a representative of “your” actions in Iraq, is meant to be an everyman hero of sorts, and the second an everyman knows something the audience doesn’t, he is no longer an everyman and must stand on his own merits. Problem is, everymen have no merits of their own; that’s why they’re everymen.
Basically, what I’m saying is that Ryan Phillpe is doing a shitty job acting and director Kimberley Pierce really should have considered making Stop-Loss into a documentary. Or shot it in the style of a documentary. Or changed every instance of “You” to “He.” Or not included the shot where Phillippe sinks to his knees in a manner more befitting an automaton that's just been switched off than a desperate man uncertain of his future. Or not played “Bodies” at the beginning, thereby creating the expectation of an action movie and failing to deliver that even in the goddamn preview. Or a lot of things.
Or maybe this movie just isn’t for me.
Cheers,
--Bob
P.S. If you can find a copy, read Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. It’s a very well-written account of the Pilgrims, from first landing in America to King Philip’s War.
P.P.S. Upon watching the trailer yet again, it appears that King may, in fact, have concerns about the morality of the war. The entirety of what he says, however, is, "Nothing we did over there bothered you at all?" Then we see King's willing-to-go-back-to-war buddy kneeling in front of a mound of dirt, most likely in a cemetary. Coupled with the mourning-type shots from the very beginning of the trailer, the implication is therefore less that King is concerned about the rightness or wrongness of the military's presence in Iraw to begin with, but is scared he'll die. And so is his army buddy. The army buddy, however, is at least willing to go back to war, even though, the way he's portrayed, he's only going to get someone killed and/or get fragged himself once he's thrown into combat again and flips out. What I'm saying is, "Nothing we did over there bothered you at all?" does not actually indicate King is concenred about anything other than not going back to war, and would still rather see unwilling civilians get drafted in his place. Fucker.
