In the Valley of Elah (imdb | dvd
In the Valley of Elah was inspired by the the true story of the murder of Army Specialist, Richard Davis, in 2007 (the aforementioned link will spoil parts of the movie). In the movie, the names are changed, but the general sequence of events is the same. The story begins with retired military police officer, Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), learning of the disappearance of his son, Mike, who’s recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Hank and a local detective, Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), join forces as they seek to discover the true reason for Mike’s disappearance. It isn’t long before they find Mike’s charred, dismembered remains carelessly hidden in the desert. The rest of the plot plays out like a standard crime drama with twists and turns as Hank seeks out whoever is responsible for his son’s death and navigates against an uncooperative Army investigative team.
In the Valley of Elah, however, is not your typical crime drama. It’s easy to look at the plot and the storyline and view it as just another played out war drama. In fact, with a little editing it would just be A Few Good Men but with an Iraq war background. Paul Haggis, however, takes a whole other route. This movie is paced slowly and everything about it is austere from the performance of lead actor, Tommy Lee Jones, to the washed out look of the film to the soundtrack’s minimal use of music and reliance on ambient silence.
The whole movie feels somber, bated, and tense. You’re waiting for Hank to let the floodgates open, but instead you struggle with him as he tries to make sense of his son’s brutal death and the many questions he has about what went exactly went wrong. The story unravels and we find that Hank’s son, Mike, may not be completely innocent in all this. Hank finds eerie videos on Mike’s cell phone which show him and fellow soldiers committing all sorts of horrible acts. And, then there’s the memory of Hank’s last phone call home. A frantic conversation which we soon realize is not just brought on by his fear of death, but also by his own guilt.
Paul Haggis makes a conscious choice with this movie not to turn it into a big box office whodunnit. And, while it lacks the transparent attempt at delivering a moral the way Crash did, this movie most definitely attempts to dive way past the surface of its story and examine the ramifications of the war in Iraq. We watch as, Hank Deerfield, a man who loves his country, has fond memories of his brothers in the military, and believes in his son, has his world shaken to the core. By the end, we all share in his realization that the war in Iraq has left more than a broken country in the Middle East ,it has left us with broken men, broken morals, and a broken country hear at home.
So, does Tommy Lee Jones deserve a Best Actor award for this one? I’m still not sure. It’s not a stretch to watch Tommy Lee Jones walk around, stone faced and unemotional. To tell the truth, it seems more that he was perfectly cast than that he turned in the performance of a lifetime. Though, I might say that this movie deserves nominations for writing or cinematography.
4-4.5 American flags out of 5
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