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Kam
04-01-2009, 12:58 PM
I've caught this on HBO quite a few times and have to say i really love it! Kevin Bacon is a Colonel on escort duty for the body of a marine killed in Iraq as Kevin Bacon takes his body home to his family. simple and extremely poignant, without beating you over the head with the significance of the scenes, but letting them just play out as they would, without any more needed melodrama on top of it.

definitely worth checking out, i think it's still on On Demand on hbo as well. and it's been playing all the time, i think should be getting it's dvd release soon as it was a direct to hbo release, not theatrical.

Worf101
04-02-2009, 03:17 AM
I've seen it a couple of times. Being ex-military and having been to many military funerals (mostly my Uncles from WWII) I understand perhaps better than most what's done and why. I made the mistake of having read the novella before seeing the film, bad idea. I just didn't find myself as moved as I expected to be by it all. I don't think it's the films fault, I think it' might just lie with me.

Da Worfster

Kam
04-02-2009, 06:44 AM
I've seen it a couple of times. Being ex-military and having been to many military funerals (mostly my Uncles from WWII) I understand perhaps better than most what's done and why. I made the mistake of having read the novella before seeing the film, bad idea. I just didn't find myself as moved as I expected to be by it all. I don't think it's the films fault, I think it' might just lie with me.

Da Worfster

worfster,
i had read they took it directly from the travel notes that the Kevin Bacon character had made on his escorting duty with Chance and they had access to a lot of information in terms of the processes and formalities followed.

from what you know, were they accurate in how the escort/transportation occured?

Worf101
04-03-2009, 05:51 AM
worfster,
i had read they took it directly from the travel notes that the Kevin Bacon character had made on his escorting duty with Chance and they had access to a lot of information in terms of the processes and formalities followed.

from what you know, were they accurate in how the escort/transportation occured?
No the depiction was bone dead accurate, it's the emotions of those involved that wasn't. In an effort to be apolitical and not take a stance on the war the film is oddly left without passion. At least that's my take on it. The 500 pound gorrila in the room was/is "did this kid die for nothing?" And that question is never asked nor hinted at.

Da Worfster

Kam
04-03-2009, 06:05 AM
No the depiction was bone dead accurate, it's the emotions of those involved that wasn't. In an effort to be apolitical and not take a stance on the war the film is oddly left without passion. At least that's my take on it. The 500 pound gorrila in the room was/is "did this kid die for nothing?" And that question is never asked nor hinted at.

Da Worfster

see i got the exact opposite impact (to use a fun term from the other thread :) ) from the movie. because it did not dwell hard on the emotions of the people within the story, that allowed the audience to feel the emotions themselves.

the scene at the airport when bacon meets back up with the other escort and they exchange words. had that been a big emotional scene with the private breaking down and crying, in THIS instance, i think that would be doing the crying FOR the audience. The scene and circumstances are inherently emotional. Escorting his brother!! the pain and emotional turmoil he must be going through is left for the audience to experience WITH him. I thought that actor was spot on in that scene letting enough through his eyes, but not doing it for the audience. that scene impacted me big time.

bacon going through the metal detector was another scene. actually the entire airport and flying sequence, how appreciative yet uncomfortable he was being in the 'spotlight' when he was upgraded to first class, when the captain made the announcement to let him off first, etc. he played it, imo, perfectly. there wasn't any overacting or indicating which in the hands of a lesser director would have been played up. there was music, but there was no massive orchestral swell at points where there could have been (eg. the impromptu funeral car-train, the gardeners all stopping and removing their hats, the ground crew all stopping and removing their hats).

even at the end when he's giving the personal effects to the family, it's dealt with simply and from an overview. there was no closeup of the tear welling/tear drop shot at all, you just saw the family, as a whole, grieving.

i actually took the way the movie was presented as a simile to the manner of escort itself. treated with respect all the way through.