Charlize Theron Movie:

		List Price: $35.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 5332 Released: February 19, 2008
		Our Price: $9.16
		Used Price: $7.69
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Mike Deerfield returns to the U.S. after his tour of duty in Iraq and abruptly goes missing. His father Hank, a spit-and-polish ex-MP from the Vietnam era, goes looking for him. What he finds goes to the heart of American combat experiences in the Iraqi conflict. Academy Award®-winning* Crash filmmaker Paul Haggis teams with Oscar®- winning* actors Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon in a probing, powerful, fact-based look at fathers and sons…and at a nation and the young soldiers it sends into battle. Jones plays Hank, whose quest lays bare a tangled web of cover-up, murder, mystery and profound revelation about the personal costs of war.

Description of In the Valley of Elah [Blu-ray]:
In career Army officer Hank Deerfield's worldview, the American military exists to bring order to the world, and honor and dignity to every one of its soldiers. As played by Tommy Lee Jones, in a layered performance that will haunt the viewer long after the film is over, Deerfield wears the Army life like he does his standard-issue white T-shirts--unconsciously making a cheap motel bed with crisp inspection-ready corners. Yet if war is hell, the purgatory for the relatives of damaged soldiers can cause far more anguish, and Paul Haggis' quietly devastating In the Valley of Elah tells this story through Deerfield, who is desperately trying to piece together the fate of his adored son Mike, a soldier in Iraq.

Mike's company has returned from duty, but he is missing; Hank flies from Tennessee to Fort Rudd in the Southwest, to conduct his own investigation into the disappearance. There he meets a smart but put-upon police officer (Charlize Theron, glammed-down but still showing a bit too much sexy collarbone for a cop) who also smells something off in the Army's official story of the disappearance. The two form an unlikely team, but as a friend tells Deerfield early on, "You gotta trust somebody sometime, Hank," and Mike's vanishing is Hank's tipping point.

As Hank pieces together the horrifying story of Mike's fate, the incremental pain becomes etched in Jones' ragged features, and the camera captures all of it--far more powerfully than could a million words of reportage from the front lines. Theron's performance is also strong, and Susan Sarandon is moving if underutilized as Hank's grief-stricken wife, robbed of the simple nuclear family life she so wanted. "They shouldn't send heroes to places like Iraq," says one of Mike's buddies late in the film, and it's the viewers' collective sorrow--and the film's great achievement--to feel that at the deepest human level. --A.T. Hurley

In the Valley of Elah [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Disordered World
2009-10-27 - With the fresh spate of suicidal bombings violating the impending election in Iraq, my viewing of Haggis's terrifying, Valley' has added resonance. Yes, so many war films have urged us to outrage, to sense the futility, the heroics, the cruelty, the power plays and their perversions. But not since, 'The Deerhunter', has the chilling consequences of violence been so devastatingly enunciated. It is no surprise that the tale has connexions to an actual event (albeit tenuously, as a lead reviewer notes. And I don't mind that Haggis even uses the actual dad as a surrogate authority for his own film's moral integrity).We need feel the sympathy and ramifications of of all characters caught in the malestrom(though I do think the young woman found murdered in the bath is stacking the cards too high even for these dramtic ends. And the inverted flag is a flawed in its overstatement).T L jones, whose grity and sullen fdemanour has made him the perfect messenger for late mid-life crises, the causes in which he eventually will tally his own contribution, is magnificent. The old-boy's network is unravelling. The new kid's deal with their stresses in unprecedented ways, and the lines once drawn in the sand have been erased.

Feels cookie cutter and predictable.
2009-10-16 - I feel I've seen this movie before, somtime in the 1980s...yes..it starred Tom Cruise as a young JAG defense attorney and Jack Nicholson....only then it was fresh. This is basically the same movie, but replace court room drama and suspense with detective drama and suspense and replace the "code red" stuff with current Iraq themed war time moral debates. The whole thing feels very canned but good acting and some decent suspense make it watchable, but that is all, just watchable not recommendable.

In the Valley of Ewwww
2009-10-13 - The description of the true story upon which this disaster was based, I found, was much better than sitting through this over-praised stinkbomb of a movie. "In the Valley of Elah" is essentially Tommy Lee Jones ruining what is a perfectly good role for DeNiro or even Eastwood. He is as flat and sour as he was in "Men In Black". Never did I watch a more robotic performance in my life.

As to the 'brutally honest' part of the critiques I've read, forget it. This film is incredibly insulting to all parties and it isn't even decent poetic license. It's just plain sloppy writing and bad filmmaking.

Two hours of Tommy Lee Jones playing Sgt. Joe Friday on a bad prostate day is revolting enough--but without emotion? Without a single tear? Good Lord, even MPs have tear ducts! And so do VietNam vets. But not Sgt. Jones. He just keeps hittin' the bricks for just the facts. What a load of baloney.

The character Deerfield's son is worse than a nightmare as 'phantom' characters go. He is at once pathetic and ridiculous. While the military might be accepting such boneheads thanks to President Bush's fascist dreams, I still found the film version disgusting. The batallion mates of the murder victim are cut-out clowns. I say again, sloppy, bad filmmaking. Instead of an Oscar I'd had given hard slaps to everyone involved in this piece of crap.

For heaven's sake, don't waste a moment on this film. There is more emotional depth in Eastwood's "Gran Torino"...and more realism.

war doesn't always make heroes
2009-09-10 - In the Valley of Elah tells a story that will stick in your mind long after you watch it even if you don't agree with the message of the movie. The acting is extremely well done although I do think Susan Sarandon's role could have been beefed up more; I'm one of the people who feel that she was underutilized in this film although her acting was brilliant. The plot moves along at a good pace although things speed up during the last forty-five minutes or so of the film; and that does make things more interesting. As the plot deepened, I really couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. In addition, the cinematography is excellent.

When the action starts, we meet Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) who lives in Tennessee with his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon). Hank gets a phone call from his son's military base at Fort Rudd, New Mexico, stating that his son Mike is AWOL from the base. Hank didn't know that Mike had returned from Iraq just a few days earlier. Hank, having been in the military as an investigator for quite some while, wants to find his son Mike without bringing in the military police so that Mike can be found without getting him into too much more trouble.

When Hank travels to Fort Rudd in the Southwest, he meets police detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) who doesn't display any interest in helping Hank find his son. After some prodding, Emily takes Hank to the place where Mike's body was found--chopped up after being burned and dragged along a field. Although there is some fighting between the army and other police officers over which agency bears the responsibility of working on the case, eventually an extensive military investigation into the crime starts with Emily trying hard to lead the crew who are working on the case. Once all this starts, there are plot twists and turns that you simply won't see coming. Many people are interviewed about the crime including Cpl. Steve Penning (Wes Chatham), Spc. Gordon Bonner (Jake McLaughlin) and Spc. Ennis Long (Mehcad Brooks). Emily and a few others think they have the killer when they corner Pvt. Robert Ortiez (Victor Wolf); but that lead turns up cold after quite a chase scene. At the same time, Hank Deerfield forms an unlikely friendship with Emily as they continue to work together to determine who killed Mike when and why.

The plot, of course, can easily go in many different directions from here. What happens when Mike's mother Joan goes to Fort Rudd to see the remains of Mike's body? How can Hank push the authorities when he himself has limited power? After all, he really can't do much more than prod Emily Sanders and the others to do what's right. Will Mike's friends Steve, Gordon and Ennis be able to provide clues to what happened to Mike? No spoilers--watch and find out! In addition, the DVD comes with some interesting outtakes.

In the Valley of Elah tells a powerful story about the degree to which people can become corrupted by war even after they have finished serving in the battlefields. It's an interesting and poignant story that could happen anywhere even though this particular film is merely based on actual events. In addition, the film brilliantly portrays an unusual type of coming-of-age story--not of a younger person but, in this case, of the young man's father, Hank Deerfield, who learns that war doesn't always produce heroes.

ONE OF THE BEST WAR FILMS EVER MADE
2009-08-13 - This is an excellent film which rewards repeated viewings, whatever your politics. It's not a film that's opposed to the Iraq War itself, and it never properly addresses the rights and wrongs of the conflict. Rather, it's a depiction of what can happen to the individuals involved.

It's also a film with shifting perspectives. Tommy Lee Jones' character makes a lot of good calls-- and a few bad ones, just like the people he's working with. And the soldiers are not damned by any means-- they each achieve varying degress of redemption.

The fact that a film like this can come out while the conflict is ongoing and still find an audience is a tribute to the film industry, and The United States generally. Consider the Vietnam War and look at how long it took for Hollywood to start getting into those issues.

It's a tremendous, affecting film with spot-on performances, and strong messages, and it will stand the test of time.