Bombing Iraq: why can't Hollywood get this war right?(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)

Publication: Texas Monthly

Publication Date: 01-APR-08

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The good news first: Stop-Loss, co-written and directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry), is the first of the current spate of war dramas that doesn't make you want to flee the theater.

Set in the fictional town of Brazos, Texas, and filmed in and around Austin, the movie tells the story of Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe), a decorated Army sergeant returning from combat who--instead of receiving his honorable discharge--is told that he's being shipped back to Iraq. Stop-lossing, of course, has been one of the most controversial aspects of the Bush administration's handling of the war, and Peirce eloquently captures the human emotions behind the depressing headlines: How can a soldier carry on fighting when he feels as if his government is using contractual fine print to cheat him out of a future? Without resorting to easy political bromides, the director also illustrates one of the fundamental ironies of post-9/11 America--that the rural, red-state towns that helped put Bush into office are the same ones losing a disproportionate...

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