IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH



US, 2007, 124 minutes, Colour.
Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Frances Fisher, Jonathan Tucker, Mehcad Brooks, Wes Chatham, Jake Mc Laughlin, Victor Wolf.
Directed by Paul Haggis.

In the Valley of Elah is a very fine film, the best of American storytelling. It was written and directed by Paul Haggis who contributed to a number of action films including Casino Royale, but who also wrote the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, wrote and directed the Oscar-winning Crash and contributed to Clint Eastwood’s war films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. In the Valley of Elah is a writing and directing accomplishment.

Only those well versed in the Old Testament books of Samuel will recognise the reference in the title. Elah is the valley where Saul led the Israelites to confront the Philistines, the valley where Goliath challenged the Israelites to battle and where David with his sling and stone defeated the giant and won victory for Israel. This story is recounted twice during the film, once by the war veteran played by Tommy Lee Jones and the second time by the police woman played by Charlize Theron. It is told twice to a young boy, David, so that he will understand something of what it is to be a man, something of what fear is, something of what confrontation and victory are.

This is one of the earliest films reflecting on America’s participation in the war in Iraq, reflecting on the rights and wrongs on the actual invasion, the incompetence of the Americans in the aftermath, the attitudes of the soldiers in Iraq, the conditions that they worked under, their bigoted and antagonistic attitudes towards Iraqis.

This film should be seen in the context of Brian De Palma’s 2007 film Redacted. Redacted is a much harder film. De Palma uses various devices, the communications media of the present including a video diary, television reportage, television interviews, the work of embedded cameramen and women during battles, internet websites especially You Tube, the chat rooms. By using all of these devices he emerges his audience in the reality of a special squad who are at a particular checkpoint in the city of Samara, their behaviour, their interactions, the hard attitudes they developed while in service, a raid, and, based on a true story, the rape of a 14 year old girl and the massacre of her family.

Redacted is an in-your-face condemnation as well as an alert to the realities of war, not focusing on nobility and patriotism but rather the squalid and cruel aspects which emerged in the media in the immediate years after the invasion.

Much of this kind of material is incorporated into the plot of In the Valley of Elah. The opening credits include some kind of video diary film - which later is sent through e-mail to various characters. Once again, the modern means of communication technology are to the fore. However, this is a narrative film in the American tradition.

Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon play the parents of a young man who is missing, considered AWOL. He has just returned from Iraq. Tommy Lee Jones portrays the veteran who goes then to Fort Bragg to investigate what has happened. This gives the film the opportunity to take us right into military headquarters, to see the style and life of the soldiers in the fort, to meet the various officers as well as the soldiers who fought with the missing man. It also offers the opportunity for the characters to go into the town of Fort Bragg, to the shops, the takeaway restaurants, and the strip clubs. The film does not stint on presenting these realistic aspects of the background of war.

Charlize Theron plays a local policewoman, a detective, working with her boss, Josh Brolin, with whom she has had a relationship. When it is discovered that the death of the young man and his disappearance took place on army property, the case is taken over by the military (especially by Jason Patric). However, the character played by Tommy Lee Jones is astute, goes to the scene of the crime, realises that the body was dumped on military ground but that the crime took place in the ordinary local jurisdiction.

The film then becomes a murder-mystery and its solving. The plot is complex with Susan Sarandon as the mother arriving to identify her son and grieving over his death. The couple have already lost one child in the military. The film highlights the grief that many American families have felt in the years after the invasion of Iraq.

There is also a sub-plot concerning Charlize Theron and her bringing up of her son - and the occasion for some very moving sequences when Tommy Lee Jones visits the household and encounters the boy with whom he is awkward but with whom he forms a bond.

The film is interesting in its detective work. Various clues are given, followed through and eventually a plot is unmasked. It is not quite what the audience is expecting - and there have been some diversions along the way, especially concerning Mexican drug dealers. This drug theme is very important - even the murdered boy was on drugs, something which his parents would not believe or could not understand, with the other soldiers saying that they concealed this truth because they wouldn’t want their own parents to know. This is another comment on contemporary America, the drug culture, the role of the parent generation and the deceptions of the young.

What is finally revealed is the same kind of attitude that was dramatised in De Palma’s Redacted. There is bigotry against the Iraqis, violence towards them - which has savage repercussions on the emotions and consciousness of many of the young men who have been sent to serve there.

The film offers excellent performances by all, an interesting and intriguing mystery to be solved, an awareness of the reality of the war in Iraq and the occupation, a challenge to presuppositions and expectations about the role of America in the world and its soldiers and occupying forces.

At the beginning of the film, Tommy Lee Jones shows a Latin- American migrant how to raise the national flag, not putting it upside down as he has, that signalling that there is a desperate crisis and the country is in need. Receiving the flag by mail from his son before he left for Iraq, the final gesture of the film is to raise the flag again - but upside down. The message is clear.

Winner of the SIGNIS award at the Venice Film Festival of 2007.

1. The dramatic impact of the film? The narrative? The topical story and characters? Situations? The invasion of Iraq, the occupation? The effect on the United States, citizens, soldiers? The public and public opinion? Government policy? Critique?

2. The work of Paul Haggis, his skill in writing narratives? His direction? An underlying polemic? His stance on Iraq via the story? The context of the murder mystery, Iraq, the United States - the detection, the final revelation?

3. The Iraqi locations filmed in Morocco? The variety of technology for communicating the images: the credits and the digital photos, the mobile phones, computer transmission of images?

4. The American settings, the home in Tennessee and the ordinary life? The contrast with Fort Bragg, the base, the soldiers' rooms, the officers'? The police precincts? The bars, the strip clubs, the takeaway restaurants? The desert terrain, the mountains in the background? An authentic location for this story?

5. The title, from the books of Samuel, the story of Saul and the Israelites versus the Philistines, Goliath and David's defeat of him? Hank and his telling the boy because his name was David, narrating the story, later Emily reciting it for her son? The battle, the challenge, the confrontation, giants instilling fear, patience and victory with a slingshot?

6. The credits, the photos, from the mobile phone? Hank watching? The expert deciphering them and sending them via email? Their content, visual style, light on the mystery, the attack on the Iraqi citizens, the child? Michael, the final revelation of his running over the person in the road, urged on by the others, their hostility towards the Iraqis? The message of his experience?

7. Tommy Lee Jones as Hank, the old-style military, in Vietnam, spit and polish, precise in making his bed, cleaning his shoes? The news of his son's being absent? His relationship with Joan, the years together, the older boy, his joining the military, the sadness of his death in an accident? The mystery about Michael? Hank and his deciding to go to Fort Bragg? Joan and her grief? Getting the help of an old friend - but finding that he had retired from the army? Going to Fort Bragg, settling in, the visit to the base? The encounter with Sergeant Carnelli, his friendliness, introducing him to the various men, showing him round, Michael's room? The meeting with Lieutenant Kirklander and his being the official? Meeting the men who served with Michael: Long, Bonner, Penning - and the absence of Ortiez? (And the fact that the actors playing Bonner and Penning had actually served in the military?)

8. Hank and his making enquiries, filling in forms, getting rejected? Being referred back to the army? His encounter with Emily, watching her deal with the woman whose dog had been killed in the bath (and the irony that the woman was finally murdered by her military husband)? Emily and her inability to do anything? Her fellow officers barking and joking at her? Emily losing her patience? Her reaction to Hank? His frustration?

9. The body found, the information about the body, the police called in, the graphic state of the body, the photographs, Emily and the investigation? The military coming in and taking over? Kirklander and his official work? Hank and the talk, going to identify the body? His grief? Communicating with Joan? Her coming?

10. His discussions with Emily, going to the site, looking at the photos, the military photos? His seeing that the body had been dragged, that there was blood on the side of the road, that the car was blue, looking green under a light? Talking with her? Her being persuaded?

11. Emily and her interaction with the boss, the intimations of the past relationship? His agreeing to phone the military? The men in the squad and their references to her affair? Her taking on the case,
Kirklander and her demands? The documents, wanting to interview the men, comparing their stories?

12. David, Emily's life at home, love for her son, putting him to bed, his wanting the door open for the light? Bringing Hank home for the meal, his enjoying it, wanting to wash up, telling David the story about Elah? David wanting the door only slightly ajar? And later wanting a slingshot?

13. Hank and his expertise, his reactions to the information? Emily and her telling off the other police, indicating the nature of their poor detective work? Tracing the credit cards? Finding times and places, the chicken restaurant and the fact that four ate the meal, going to the topless bars, getting people to recognise the men? The waitress at the topless bar, her encountering Hank, her talking with Hank, offering sympathy, giving an indication of a different time? Hank and Emily following this through? Going to the bouncer at the bar, getting his information about the drinking, the fighting, his ousting them, making a statement?

14. The possibility that the death was drug-related? The background of the desert, the Mexicans, drug dealers and their decapitating their victims? The men and their dependence on drugs, including Michael? Their lying, not wanting to tell Hank, their not wanting to tell their parents the truth? Their contacts and dealers?

15. The continued search? The finding or Ortiez's address? Raiding his house, the chase along the roof? His being interrogated? His being innocent?

16. The interviews with the various men? Bonner and his close friendship with Michael, serving in the Balkans? Long and his being interrogated? Penning and his story? Long being found dead, hanged in his room?

17. Joan, her coming, identifying the body, her grief? Her return home? The parcel in the post?

18. The continued searching, the interrogation of the men? Bonner finally telling the truth? The disputes, the fights, the accidental killing of Michael? Long being a butcher, able to dismember the body and hide it? The angers, the memories of Iraq, the disputes about what happened with the car and the hit-run? Its taking its toll? The fact that any of them could have been killed - and all the others, including Michael, could have done it?

19. The effect on Hank, his knowing the truth? The effect on Emily, her having done her duty, exercised her skills? The farewell?

20. Hank, his return, the parcel at home? The flag?

21. The symbolism of the American flag - on his way to Fort Bragg, Hank stopping and talking with the Latin-American? who had put the flag on the pole upside down? Hank's explanation that the upside down flag was a sign of crisis and an appeal for assistance? His taking the flag at the end - and raising it upside down? The clear meaning of that message in terms of America at the beginning of the 21st century, America's self-consciousness, its role in the world, the invasion of Iraq, the occupation of Iraq, terrorism, brutality - and the need for America to examine its conscience?