Movie Review
SXSW Movie Review: Stop-Loss
Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 14, 2008
When director Kimberly Peirce took the stage, she called Stop Loss a tribute to the troops. Considering her own brother is a soldier in Iraq, why would she make them all look like incompetent, drunk messes of human beings?
The story follows a group of soldiers from a small Texas town as they come back home. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has just finished two tours and is going home for good. Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) is also coming home, and is ready to marry his sweetheart Michelle. Things go wrong when Brandon finds out that the government has forced him to serve another tour, he has been Stop-Lossed. Trying to face either going back to war or fleeing the country, Brandon is in for the biggest decision of his life.
I have so many problems with this film. Other than nothing being more annoying than an inconsistent accent that floats in and out between scenes, I could not tell what type of message that this film was trying to push. This is a film that is trying to push an agenda, without a doubt. Who is this film being made for though? There are several ways that you could interpret the meaning of this film: A tribute to the troops fighting, to the troops who have died for no reason, to the troops who are stop-lossed, to the families, a message for the government, pro-war, anti-war…who knows?
If this film were a tribute to the fighting troops, then I would probably take offense to every soldier in this film being portrayed as a drunk raving lunatic. Not every soldier has post-traumatic stress and dangerous hallucinations, but in this film they do. The film also had a hard time sorting out its stance on the war. It makes the film seem like a giant contradiction that ultimately confuses its audience. The film does not hesitate to take any shots at the government, but also treats the war and the soldiers as a necessary action within the same breath. Stop Loss was just a big hot mess of a film, that I’m sure will sell well with teenage girls.
A film filled with too much cheese, too little substance, too much contradiction and not enough direction, Stop-Loss is one of the year’s worst films. It’s a shame, this film could have been something, if it would have just taken a stance and said something important.
Stop Loss was directed by Kimberly Peirce. It made its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 13, 2008. It has a 112 minute runtime.
Read more articles by Brian C. Gibson
5 Comments
March 15th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I wanted to be excited about Kim Pierce’s second film finally coming out, but this looks dreadful.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:10 am
maybe this film wasn’t about pushing a specific agenda so much as it was supposed to show that life/love/war/patriotism are complex and not always clearly or easily defined. this movie isn’t supposed to give us answers to political events happening in our times–movies are supposed to be representations of actions in real life and sometimes those actions are more complex and hard to digest than what you’re expecting. Life doesn’t resolve itself like a movie so I say kudos to a movie that doesn’t resolve itself. that’s an accurate representation of life.
March 17th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Thank you Ann, well said. I don’t doubt that all troops who come home have the same type of problems adjusting as the ones shown in this film. I am from the Vietnam generation and frankly we have learned nothingggg as we are now in another senseless war. I have friends today who did a tour in Vietnam and to this day they are functional successful members of society. But to say that they will always be affected by Vietnam is an understatement. One of my deaest friends died last year from cancer, DUE to that wonderful insectiside or whatever it is Agent Orange.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I thought the movie sucked. Way too political, and that made it boring and unbelievable. Does Hollywood not do entertainment anymore? Is this all we get from now on, social statements and commentary? I’m scared to go to the movies anymore, they mostly tend to be rants about how terrible the United States is as a country. Does anyone in Holywood like this country?
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Saw it…fantastic movie. Maybe its because I am the political type, but I really felt that Pierce nailed it on the head. Also, as a soldier comming back myself and managing to avoid the stop-losses, I do see why she portrayed the characters the way she did. A lot of the kids comming back were people who just jumped in right at the 9-11 attacks and they had no idea what was going on. For someone who did that and then served 2 to 4 full tours (the character in the movie 2, but most have been 2+ in real life) many do have psychological diseases that were caused from seeing some of your best friends that you bonded for months with killed before your eyes by an enemy that would sooner see you dead than help you *bury* your dead. As a soldier of 15 years now, I’ve seen my share of that and have learned to cope, but so many of the people I see comming back right now just can not handle it and are dropping into drugs, alcohol, depression, etc. So I think that Pierce, unfortunately, got it perfect. (At least for the younger soldiers)