July 3, 2011
Good on the Phoenix for getting this excellent film. On Sunday there was an audience of 12, and I suspect the other screenings will be similarly sparse. For why? Well it's not the quality of the filmmaking on offer, but rather a lack of publicity. This film has not gone viral.
It's easy to see why cinema lovers at large (and especially in the USA) might not like this film. It's not a popcorn-gobbler, there are no special effects, there's no dramatic climax and while it isn't trumpet-blowingly anti the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's not very positive about them either.
But what this film does so well is to drop you into a few ragged, messy, disorientated lives - lives of soldiers, ex-soldiers and nexts of kin. Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) has 3 months left in the army. He's wounded, so he's doing some training and batting around his quarters. Then he gets assigned to Casualty Notification. He's not particularly keen, especially when he meets his new boss, the excellently flat-nosed Woody Harrelson. In some ways The Messenger is an odd title, because this is definitely a two-hander.
There are plenty of films where the old recruit has to train up the new boy, who thinks he knows better until it all goes wrong. But as soon as it has set up this groove the relationship between Will and the Captain jumps out of it. Captain Stone is just as lost, confused and lonely as Will, and there is no right way to do this terrible job.
The business of breaking the news to the NOKs is very detailed and convincing. I don't know the background of the writers of this film, but I'd be willing to bet they have inside knowledge. The reactions, the way people are shattered and both disbelieve and already know, the grim humour Stone uses to protect himself, right down to the pair checking their appearance in the mirrored windows of the car - you're plunged right into the heart of each different situation.
The plot hinges on Montgomery's relationship with one widow, Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton). He's transfixed by her from the moment they break the news and she is kind to them. She's obviously a very nice person, even in hard times, and for a soldier trying desperately to undo the dehumanising effects of the army that's very enticing. But it's clearly the wrong moment. Will honour prevail? Will Will do the right thing?
There are no really well-known actors in this except Steve Buscemi. But Morton and Foster are perfect together, as are Foster and Harrelson. Everything balances on knife-edges, and while the action isn't gun-toting exciting, it keeps its tension throughout.
Similarly, it remains brilliantly on the fence about the morals of going to war. Focussing so much on the death of soldiers in combat it would be easy to come down heavy on the reasons against, but again it keeps the balance. The main characters aren't really too concerned with that, at this point, more about how well the Army looks after its own. The film's great about the dangers of institutions as substitute families.
Perhaps the most critical message is how meaningless the word "hero" is: if you save two of your platoon and get one killed just how heroic are you? Part of the problem is obviously that the rest of the world don't really understand what soldiers have been through in combat. In a roundabout way this film might help with that, if only more people would watch it. In 20 years I think this will be a classic. I'd advise getting in on the first wave, and seeing it on the big screen now.
It's easy to see why cinema lovers at large (and especially in the USA) might not like this film. It's not a popcorn-gobbler, there are no special effects, there's no dramatic climax and while it isn't trumpet-blowingly anti the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's not very positive about them either.
But what this film does so well is to drop you into a few ragged, messy, disorientated lives - lives of soldiers, ex-soldiers and nexts of kin. Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) has 3 months left in the army. He's wounded, so he's doing some training and batting around his quarters. Then he gets assigned to Casualty Notification. He's not particularly keen, especially when he meets his new boss, the excellently flat-nosed Woody Harrelson. In some ways The Messenger is an odd title, because this is definitely a two-hander.
There are plenty of films where the old recruit has to train up the new boy, who thinks he knows better until it all goes wrong. But as soon as it has set up this groove the relationship between Will and the Captain jumps out of it. Captain Stone is just as lost, confused and lonely as Will, and there is no right way to do this terrible job.
The business of breaking the news to the NOKs is very detailed and convincing. I don't know the background of the writers of this film, but I'd be willing to bet they have inside knowledge. The reactions, the way people are shattered and both disbelieve and already know, the grim humour Stone uses to protect himself, right down to the pair checking their appearance in the mirrored windows of the car - you're plunged right into the heart of each different situation.
The plot hinges on Montgomery's relationship with one widow, Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton). He's transfixed by her from the moment they break the news and she is kind to them. She's obviously a very nice person, even in hard times, and for a soldier trying desperately to undo the dehumanising effects of the army that's very enticing. But it's clearly the wrong moment. Will honour prevail? Will Will do the right thing?
There are no really well-known actors in this except Steve Buscemi. But Morton and Foster are perfect together, as are Foster and Harrelson. Everything balances on knife-edges, and while the action isn't gun-toting exciting, it keeps its tension throughout.
Similarly, it remains brilliantly on the fence about the morals of going to war. Focussing so much on the death of soldiers in combat it would be easy to come down heavy on the reasons against, but again it keeps the balance. The main characters aren't really too concerned with that, at this point, more about how well the Army looks after its own. The film's great about the dangers of institutions as substitute families.
Perhaps the most critical message is how meaningless the word "hero" is: if you save two of your platoon and get one killed just how heroic are you? Part of the problem is obviously that the rest of the world don't really understand what soldiers have been through in combat. In a roundabout way this film might help with that, if only more people would watch it. In 20 years I think this will be a classic. I'd advise getting in on the first wave, and seeing it on the big screen now.