"‘Stop-Loss‘, Eye-opening but a statement and not a film."
Stop Loss for me started well, bunch of guys in Iraq fighting. Come back to the USA and have a few issues adjusting back to normal life. Likable characters and reasonable acting, but the plot was more of a statement than a story being told.
The idea of a back-door draft via Stop-Loss is wrong. If a person signs up for military service and has a contract in place. There shouldn't be a clause that means that contract can be extended without some negotiation on both sides. In essence it is a way to keep people in the military that want out, so it is a way to draft people into the military without a draft in place!
This film portrays the agonies of a soldier who has decided he has had enough, SSgt Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe). He wants out and is looking forward to starting a new life. He is shocked when he is ordered back into the field for another tour by means of Stop-Loss. The reason, he is a good soldier and it is a time of war. Yet according to Mr President the war is over. So how can somebody logically or legally be pressed back into service? Unable to face more of the horrors he has seen, and losing more friends, he goes absent without Leave (AWOL). He is now on the run.
As the lives of his friends fall apart without his presence, he is torn between a life on the run and going back into the army.
This film has some solid acting and I must admit I think Ryan Phillippe is good. There is a strong supporting cast with the Ciaran Hinds, Timothy Olyphant, Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish.
What spoils this film is it preached at me a little, I felt in a way it should almost be a documentary. I agree the topic needs focus, but I don't think this was the right medium.
I watched it through to the end but only because I wanted to find out what happened to SSgt Brandon King. The ending was a let down and made me wonder what exactly was the point of the whole film. It doesn't have a satisfactory conclusion, probably because there isn't one in real life.
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