Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this contemplative, slow-moving mystery/drama isn't for kids. Its focus on military culture and wartime trauma yields images of chaotic, violent combat footage (much of this is shown in choppy, handheld cell phone video that can be hard to see/interpret). The movie's central murder is discussed frequently, and morgue scenes show the victim's mother's grief, as well as a brief glimpse of the body itself (there's another quick shot of an additional victim's body later on). Strippers are bare-breasted, and characters discuss a female detective who slept with her boss. Strong language includes many uses of "f--k," plus other profanity ("s--t," "p---y," "ass," etc.), and some disparaging terms used to describe Mexican Americans.
Families can talk about the impact of violent war imagery. Ask kids where they see disturbing images most -- on TV or the Internet -- and ask them how they deal with what they see. Families can also discuss what messages the movie is sending about war and the military. Is it the job of movies and TV shows to examine important social issues and current events? What other movies can you think of that have handled big topics in a similar way? How do the relationships within the movie affect its impact on you as a viewer? Is Hank a good father? Why or why not?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Structured as a series of mysteries, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH layers blame and guilt upon grief and loss. Like his award-winning Crash, Paul Haggis' war-centric drama is heavy-handed, raising important questions about military culture and masculinity, but only finding superficial answers.
The most obvious mystery is the murder of Mike Deerfield (Jonathan Tucker), a young soldier just back from Iraq. At the movie's start, Mike's father, Hank (Tommy Lee Jones), a Vietnam war vet and retired MP, gets word that Mike's gone AWOL. Sure that his son would never run off without a reason, Hank hops in his truck and drives from Tennessee to New Mexico's Fort Rudd.
Upon arrival, he learns that Mike has, in fact, been murdered -- stabbed 42 times and left by the side of a road late at night. Because the body was found between military and local police jurisdictions, questions arise about who should investigate. The Army wants the case, and the cops don't much care. But Hank does.
Based on Mark Boal's article "Death and Dishonor," which first appeared in the May 2004 issue of Playboy, the movie positions Hank as an old-school man of honor. Which, apparently, requires him to neglect his wife, Joan (Susan Sarandon), as well as instruct the detective who takes the case, Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron). Emily is a hardworking single mother who's isolated by the men in her squad; they taunt her and dismissively send her the "girly" cases (a woman afraid of her boyfriend, for example).
Joan is also lonely, despite -- and because of -- Hank's assurances that he'll solve the case (their phone calls while he's away are devastating, as she partly blames him for her son's decision to enlist and resents his absence). Like many a movie hero before him, Hank asserts that if he can only set right what's askew, he'll have done his duty and reset his little piece of the universe. Even if he knows that isn't what Joan needs, it's what he needs, to be a man in the most efficient, self-defining, and uncompromising sense.
On Mike's cell phone, Hank discovers some fragmented footage from Baghdad, which a local tech deciphers for him. The files arrive intermittently by email, since the tech works on them during his off-hours; as such, they provide an aptly disjointed structure for the investigation, with each little bit revealing more about the trauma Mike experienced -- and inflicted -- in Baghdad. Hank's own flashbacks show that he rebuffed his son's efforts to talk, which leaves Hank feeling even guiltier.
Hank's pursuit of his "truth" is complicated and nuanced by Jones' singular intensity (a close-up of his deeply creased face does more emotional work than pages of dialogue), but he's still quite obviously part of the problem, a true military believer. He begins to question himself when he runs into some mirror versions, especially an MP named Lt. Kirklander (Jason Patric).
By contrast, Emily wants to help Hank and accepts his help as well; their shared sense of mission is largely unspoken, but tender, too. At first, Hank tells Emily that because she's never "been to war," she can't understand the meaning of a "unit." But viewers know what he doesn't, that her squad harasses her daily. Where Hank trusts in the loyalty of masculine, combat-forged company, Emily sees rupture, competition, and cruelty.
This difference is instructive, but Elah does less well in considering the racism beneath the unit's surface. As the cell phone footage slowly unreels, Hank is shocked see his son's malice against "hajiis" in Iraq. Hank also has a hard time seeing his own abuses of a Mexican-American soldier he deems "Chico."
When Hank at last has a heart-to-heart minute with this young man, Private Ortiez (Victor Wolf), their faces are turned away from each other. The private remembers being in Iraq and wanting only to come home. Now, he says softly, he only wants to go back. While many movie-style military men have voiced this desire, here it seems tragic. The horrors of the war have changed his sense of time and self; he no longer feels "at home" anywhere, much as Hank has also never been "home" with Joan or his son. The close shot of Ortiez's expression, sad and self-knowing, is more effective than the rest of the film's point-pounding.
Fans might enjoy other topical murder investigation films, including A Mighty Heart, The Good German, and John Ford's remarkable Sergeant Rutledge.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentFemale dancers sport naked breasts in a strip bar scene. Stripper speaks to Hank while she's nude from the waist up (viewers see her breasts full-on). Discussion of soldiers seeking out prostitutes. Discussion of Emily having slept with her unit chief by fellow detectives who resent her promotion to their ranks. |
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ViolenceFrequent violence and images showing the results of violence. Cell phone footage shows explosions, gunfire, and shots of bodies on the roadside, as well as U.S. soldiers in Iraq hitting a child with a vehicle (off screen, but loud noise and verbal reactions), and a soldier torturing a man (below screen) by twisting a finger in his wound. Murder victim's body is briefly visible; discussion of his multiple stab wounds. Background TV footage refers to and briefly shows war images, including Fallujah 2004, when contractors were killed and burned in front of TV cameras. Veterans discuss trauma in war zone (watching, suffering, committing violence). Brief shot of woman's bloody body. Hank slams a man with his truck door, leaving him bloody. Detectives wield guns. |
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LanguageSome salty soldier language, including repeated uses of "f--k" (over 20, one with "mother"), as well as "hell," "ass" and "a--hole," "s--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," and "p---y." Pejorative use of "chico" to refer to a Mexican-American solider. |
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Social BehaviorSuspects lie during a murder investigation; references to a female detective having slept with her commander; film raises questions about military objectives and training, as well as soldiers' lack of discipline in Iraq and back home. Male detectives taunt the only woman in their unit, and some racism is displayed toward Mexican Americans. |
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CommercialismCoca-Cola. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoBackground cigarette smoking; characters drink several times (liquor, beer) in a bar and in a truck (two men share a bottle of Jim Beam). Discussion of a soldier trying to "score meth." |
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