STUDIO: Paramount
RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2008
STARRING: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joeseph Gordon-Levitt
WRITTEN BY: Kimberly Pierce, Mark Richard
DIRECTED BY: Kimberly Pierce
FEATURES: 11 Deleted Scenes
The Making of Stop Loss
Commentary by Director Kimberly Pierce and Co-Writer Mark Richard
Featurette: A Day at Boot Camp

After watching director Kimberly Pierce’s Stop Loss, a couple of interesting questions quickly came to mind. Would Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July have worked better if it was released at the height of the Vietnam War? What would the public’s reaction have been at the time? Seeing how the war in Iraq is still being fought overseas, I have a hard time with movies about the conflict being released at the same time. Not that certain stories shouldn’t be told; freedom of expression and freedom of speech strike to the very heart of a democratic society. It’s the timing that never feels right, accompanied by an odd, awkwardness that’s hard to describe. Each day we’re updated on the war through headlines, news, documentaries, and more, which causes battle fatigue at home on a completely different level than what the soldiers face in the heat of conflict. Do we really need to see the war, or its aftereffects, in theaters, too? That’s for you to decide.

Nine years after her release of Boys Don’t Cry, Kim Pierce returned to the director’s chair for Stop Loss, which focuses on a little known tactic used by the military that extends a soldier’s tour of duty to the end of the war like a revolving door. Oftentimes when a soldier returns home thinking his or her tour is complete, they find themselves repeatedly sent back into action as if caught in an endless loop. Stop Loss is a movie very much "of" the moment with deep, rewarding dramatic layers on a human level. However, it’s hard to forsake the fact that its true effectiveness also depends on what side of the political divide you fall on.

When decorated soldier Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) returns home from Iraq, he soon learns he’s been "stop lossed," with his enlistment contract shockingly extended to the end of the current war. With only a month before he must return to active duty, Brandon goes AWOL and heads to Washington road-trip style to get answers and to fight his stop loss, eventually realizing there’s nothing he can do because of a loophole in the law. The central question of the movie arises - Does Brandon leave his country behind for Canada or does he go back to war? Adding to the conflict is Brandon’s best friend and loyal shell-shocked soldier, Steve (Channing Tatum), whose young independent minded fiancee, Michelle, tries to help Brandon fight the stop loss while their traumatized Iraq vet buddy Tommy (Joseph Gordon Levitt) tries to cope with the horrors of war. It’s a complicated mix of extremes that forces you to address not only the film’s antiwar issues but the fairness of the stop loss tactic, the toll the war has taken, and the "backdoor" predicament so many soldiers have already had to endure.

So how does Stop Loss stack up as a film? It’s an emotional journey that binds you to the issues through an admirable moral fortitude that maintains its weight throughout the story. Pierce’s own brother was sent off to Iraq so it’s not a film that’s indirectly rooted in relevant experience. The film kicks off with a vividly effective opening battle sequence that gives you a first-hand representation of the conflict from the ground in Tikrit. It’s one of the better combat sequences of all the recent Iraq war films, which serves as the perfect foundation for the issues and questions that follow and the fabric that binds the military pals. Shortly afterward, Brandon’s homecoming and subsequent celebration with his mates is a powerful set up for what’s about to come crashing down around him - his stop loss and the fight to raise awareness of the wrongful act against soldiers. Given the weighty issues the story lays out in front of the audience, there’s an unavoidable natural progression that traps the film in both its moral compass and its political principles. Is the act of being "stop lossed" unfair? Absolutely! So, now what do we do? There’s still a war going on overseas.

The biggest issue I have with the movie is that I can’t trust it. Not in the legitimacy surrounding the issue of a soldier being stop lossed, anyone with a sense of compassion can feel for another human being who’s forced to go to war against their will when feeling tricked by their own government. Many soldiers have been stop lossed in recent years and it’s certainly not right on an elemental level. It’s the fact that I’ve talked to soldiers about to go back to Iraq and I’ve also turned on the TV only to see soldiers on the ground stating their pride for what they’re accomplishing in Iraq. There’s more to the real issues than the fact alone that stop loss is wrong. Is there really a perfect scenario here that could get everyone on the same page? Pierce tackles a wartime issue that can’t easily be solved or addressed when the war is still being waged. Nonetheless, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed and dealt with at some point. For that, Kim Pierce deserves huge respect for bringing an otherwise unknown and serious issue to light on the big screen.

On DVD is where Stop Loss belongs simply due to the fact that the disc’s commentary by Kim Pierce and co-writer Mark Richard allows both to explain and express their viewpoints on the issues. The fact that upward of 100,000 soldiers have been stop lossed by the current administration deserves expanded discussion. Although some might not agree with everything Pierce says about the war, the track is an engaging and necessary companion to the film. Pierce also lends her thoughts to 11 deleted scenes that dropped out a series of fairly blue-collar, small-town segments of the story that don’t do much for the DVD other than to raise a few more interesting questions surrounding the characters. While the "Making of Stop Loss" takes you behind the scenes with the cast and crew to give a few quality glimpses of the challenges of making a contemporary war film, the featurette "A Day in Boot Camp" offers a candid look at Phillippe and the boys at the shortened military boot camp they had to experience before shooting. It’s the perfect way to close out the disc and a casual breath of fresh air after the feeling the weight of the issues within the film.

As a film, Stop Loss starts out strong but gets mired in its message. It’s not a bad film; it’s just weighty and repetitive in what it tries to say. It’s not a bad message either; it’s simply difficult to gauge its true effectiveness since the war is still being waged. It makes me ask the question - Would Oliver Stone’s Platoon have worked better if it was released during the Tet Offensive?