At the Movies with Governor Tom: Stop-Loss

After a long week, I'd been looking forward to a quiet Friday night and an early crash, what with a full day to look forward to at the Santa Anita Derby tomorrow. You know how the saying goes, though, right? "Man plans to the tiniest detail. God rolls on his Divine Ass." While browsing the Web at work this afternoon, I paid a visit to the ArcLight site. I'm wont to do that now and again, as I am with the American Cinemateque site and a few others. It's especially important with the ArcLight 'cause, for some reason, their e-newsletters no longer get to me. If I don't pay their site a visit at least once a week, I could fall behind on their events. Anyway, so earlier today I saw that for the 8pm showing of Stop-Loss tonight, director Kimberly Peirce would be appearing afterward for a Q&A. Okay, I know Kim's about a light year from someone like, say, Steven Spielberg or Clint Eastwood. But you don't understand. Boys Don't Cry really had an impact on me. I've still only seen it that one time back in late '99 or early '00, and I still remember it pretty vividly. When I saw it, I remember thinking that whoever had directed it was signalling their arrival on the cinematic landscape with a very original voice. So the opportunity to see her in person was simply too good to pass up, work-week fatigue be damned.

Kim sure has been taking her dandy ol' time getting back behind the camera. Hilary Swank, her Oscar-winning leading lady from Boys, has gone on to star in oodles of films and even collected a second Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. Kim, meanwhile, has done all of zilch in that time. Stop-Loss is her second film. She didn't plan it this way (see "man plans" adage above and replace the first word with "woman"). After the Oscars in 2000 came and went and all the hoo-ha from Boys finally died down, she immediately set to work on this one flick called Silent Star. It was to be based on the true story of William Desmond Taylor, this Irish guy who came to the States as a wee lad of 18 and busted his butt up the movie industry ladder, both as an actor and a director. He did quite well for himself, working with the likes of Mary Pickford and serving a few terms as head of the Motion Picture Directors' Association. And then, on the night of February 1, 1922, someone shot the poor guy in the chest inside his bungalow. He was a couple months shy of 50. This triggered (pardon the pun) what was probably the first really huge scandal of Hollywood. And I mean huge. Imagine if some big-time director like Spielberg was found dead, and the prime suspects included Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, just about every A-list star you could think of. That's basically what happened. Just about every A-lister was considered a suspect. The murder was never solved, although actress Patricia Palmer did confess to killing him 40 years later while she languished on her death bed. Still, to this day no one can say for sure who did it. So Kim Peirce spent three years researching and developing the heck out of this film. She had it all mapped out and budgeted meticulously. Actors like Ben Kingsley, Annette Benning, and Hugh Jackman had already agreed to do it. Kim wanted to shoot for $30 million, which is relatively cheap in Hollywoodland. Finally, when she was all set to start filming in 2003, the studio said they wouldn't give her a penny more than $20 million. Kim, suffice it to say, was less than thrilled. The two sides couldn't compromise, and so Silent Star lived up to its title.

This was followed by a second false start when she was offered the chance to direct Memoirs of a Geisha after Spielberg decided he couldn't do it. Being Japanese on her ma's side (and having done a brief stint as a photographer in Japan back in the nineties), the studio heads thought she might be able to bring some native insight to the piece. Finally Kim opted out of it because she just didn't feel comfortable directing a piece about, as she put it, "underage prostitutes."

Around this time, something happened that lit the spark for what would eventually become Stop-Loss. Kim's kid brother Brett enlisted in the Army. This was in September 2003, about six or so months after the Iraq war began. He served one tour of duty, came back in late 2004, and found out that he'd been stop-lossed. If you haven't seen the film or if you don't follow the war, that basically means he was assigned to another tour. The only way a soldier can get out of being stop-lossed is if they suffer from severe PTSD or if they have a physical injury that would prevent them from serving. The latter applied to Brett. He'd been a sniper in Iraq, and that one year or so of mounting that sniper's rifle on his shoulder had effectively crushed said shoulder. So in other words, he was useless. Kim, meanwhile, was intrigued that her brother could have so easily been sent back to fight some more. So she did some digging and found that something like 80,000 of our troops have had to serve second and third and fourth tours since the war began. Like any good writer, she saw fodder for a good story and went with it.

She and her research partner, Reid Carolin (officially credited as Associate Producer), hit the road. They traveled all over the country to interview soldiers. By far the most fascinating thing she came across were all the homemade videos the soldiers made while in Iraq, and especially while they were in the middle of a firefight. When it was their turn to go on patrol or what have you, many of the soldiers would bring their own little camcorders. They'd put them in places like the Humvee dashboard, or up next to the gun turret, or down near the ground so all you could see were people's boots going back and forth. If a gunfight broke out, that camera up on the dash would show the windshield shattering. You get the idea. She also said the soldiers taped executions of enemy commanders. Pretty graphic stuff. Then what they'd do, once they got back to base, is upload the videos onto their laptops and edit them together with a song, like something from MTV War. In a lot of instances the songs would be of the patriotic variety. Some groups Kim remembered off the top included AC/DC (during one of the executed general ones) as well as Linkin Park and Toby Keith. Apparently soldiers do this kind of thing all the time, and it fascinated Kim to no end. If you've seen the flick, you'll know that she has her main characters using their own handheld camcorders for certain scenes throughout, including a lot at the beginning when she establishes the camaraderie of the main boys. That's a word she used a lot during the Q&A afterward when talking about all the soldiers she met: Camaraderie. Before I get to the Q&A, let me talk about the film itself.

If I were a critic, I'd probably give it two stars out of four. It definitely had its moments, but sometimes I felt like I was being bopped upside the head with a sledge. When it comes to trying to lace a message through your story, whether it be a flick, a book, a play, whatever, I've always been a big believer in less is more. If you already know what you're trying to teach through your piece, don't even bother trying to force it. Just be a storyteller. Tell your story, be true to it, and trust that whatever message you're trying to impart to the masses will arise organically. I really wish Kim had tried subscribing to that tenet a wee bit more. By not doing so, the film itself felt stilted at times, and the dialogue suffered. Again, the dialogue had its moments, but there were many other moments where someone would say something and I was like, "Oh come on, Kim! Who would say that?!"

So here's the story without giving too much away. Ryan Phillippe plays Staff Sergeant Brandon King. When the story starts, he's nearing the end of his second tour (his first having been in Afghanistan). He and da boyz are in Tikrit making their home videos and what have you while doing checkpoint duty. They come under attack. The firefight leads them into an alley between two apartment buildings. Ambush! Three of his soldiers are killed, and a fourth is wounded severely. Bran arrives back in Texas to a grand homecoming. Two of his men are also from the same town. They've been pals since they were kiddies and are now being welcomed back as heroes even though they feel several light-years from heroic. Soon enough Sergeant King finds out that he's been stop-lossed and that he's gotta go back to Iraq. Of course he doesn't jive with that. It's his refusal to obey, followed by his escape from the brig, that kicks off the story. He gets it into his head that this one U.S. Senator, who'd been at his homecoming, might help him. So he gets into his car and high-tails it to Washington, D.C. He's not alone, though. His best friend's fiance, Michelle, whom Bran has known since third grade, goes with him. No, don't worry. They don't become romantically involved, for which I was quite grateful. Now there's one cliche Kim didn't surrender to.

Meanwhile, Bran's best friend Steve (Michelle's above-mentioned fiance, played by up-and-comer Channing Tatum) is grappling with a dose of PTSD. Ya know, he does stuff like dig ditches in the front yard, thinking that's where he's gotta sleep for the night. He eventually gets his shit together and is obviously less than thrilled that his gal's gone and made herself a sort of fugitive with Bran. Now the third member of this little Texan triumvirate of soldier-buddies, Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, awesome as the lead in Brick as well as The Lookout), has by far the worst case of PTSD in the film. He's just gotten married but never gets around to opening the pile of wedding presents in the back of the car. I suppose his wife leaving him because she couldn't handle his mental scars may have something to do with that. So Tom takes the presents out of the car and arranges them in some clearing in the woods where he, Steve, Bran, and Steve's kid brother Shorty can play target practice with them.

That's the gist of the plot. I won't give too much else away, but suffice it to say that absolutely nothing goes to plan here. Can I just say one thing about the cast, though? It's terrific. Everyone is perfectly suited to their role. Ryan Phillippe is competent as always. Channing Tatum should have a solid career ahead of him. I just saw on IMDb that he's playing Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. Now that is what I call awesome. Are you kidding? I grew up with G.I. Joe as a youngster back in the eighties. Duke is, like, one of the main good guys. Now that I've seen him in Stop-Loss, I can see this cat making a terrific Duke. Seriously, dude's practically a clone of him. Joseph-Gordon Levitt is great as Tommy, although we don't get to see him very much. And Tommy's sort of a one-note character in that he's pretty much messed up in the noggin all the time. Still, Joseph's a great actor. If you haven't seen Brick or The Lookout, please do. Speaking of Joseph, he will also star in G.I. Joe. You know who he's gonna play? You'll never guess. Cobra Commander! I shit you not. I can't WAIT to see that. Speaking of underused talent, I was surprised to see Ciaran Hinds in the role of Ryan Phillippe's dad. Ciaran Hinds, if you want to look him up, is in just about everything these days. I just saw him in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day a couple weeks ago. Other recent roles include There Will Be Blood and even Margot at the Wedding last fall. He played Julius Caesar in the HBO series Rome. I tell ya, the guy's in everything, and it's no wonder. Dude can act. Which is why I'm surprised he signed up for Stop-Loss. He's in all of three scenes or something. His Texan accent's okay (like Liam Neeson he's originally from Northern Ireland), but beyond that, he doesn't get to do much. You've also got Victor Rasuk. I first took note of him in this indie film from about five years ago called Raising Victor Vargas. He played the lead role. Please throw that on your queue if you haven't seen it. That was a great little film, and I'm sorry his career hasn't quite blasted off yet. He was in Lords of Dogtown a couple years ago, but I don't think he's been in much else. In Stop-Loss he plays Rico, the one guy who was wounded severely at the Tikrit firefight. Bran and Michelle visit him in the hospital during their cross-country trek. It's one of the more affecting scenes in the film.

By far my favorite cast member is up-and-coming Abbie Cornish. Like Ciaran Hinds, she had to learn the Texan twang for her role, as she's Australian. Two recent films, little indies that you may have missed at your local art house and which, combined with this film, really demonstrate the breadth of her talent, are Somersault and Candy. In the latter she co-stars with a pair of other very talented Ozzies: the late great Heath Ledger as well as Geoffrey Rush. In Stop-Loss she was positively brilliant. Abbie all but vanishes into this role. I'm sure this film will have been forgotten by the next Oscar season, and that's too bad. Seriously, give this gal a trophy, stat!

The Q&A got off to sort of an awkward start when the mics wouldn't work. I'm not sure who that guy was who was supposed to moderate. His mic worked, but Kim's never did. So what he finally did was, he just gave her his mic, walked over to the side, and let the gal take over. I could easily see Kim being a college professor 'cause she was such a natural at fielding questions and giving terrific answers, detailed and articulate. First she told us a bit about her background. After scoring a bachelor's in English and Japanese lit from the U. of Chicago in '88, she moved to New York to pursue an MFA in film from Columbia. She wrapped that up in two years and decided to stay there. She did stints as a photographer and whatnot, and I believe Boys Don't Cry began life as a short film. Anywho, she was in New York for almost 15 years or so. She was still living there on 9/11 and saw the twin towers collapse with her own eyes. She and her pals went to all the vigils around the city, helped clean up Ground Zero, all that stuff. It was two years later, September 2003 (six months into the Iraq war), that her bro enlisted. Brett's much younger than her. When he was born, Kim was 18. In fact, she was the one who drove him home from the hospital, a night she remembers quite vividly. Because of that, Brett has always represented pure innocence to her. Then, 18 years later, when he was shipping off to Iraq, both Kim as well as their mother were sort of all torn up inside. Let's be honest here: They were a pair of basket cases. Brett's doing okay nowadays, though, even though he'll have that bum shoulder for the rest of his life. Kim, meanwhile, lives and works out of her one-bedroom flat in Malibu.

One of the stops included on her and Reid Carolin's research road trip included Paris, Illinois. They got there just as the town was putting on this huge homecoming for something like a thousand troops from that area. These troops served in a transportation division that stands apart from the rest for two reasons: most casualties sustained and most fighting hours logged. Among the various duties assigned to them was shuttling high-ups to and from Abu Ghraib. Many of these troops had been stop-lossed so many times that this homecoming finally gave them the chance to meet their children.

Talking about families led Kim to discuss what she considered by far and away the dominant theme in her research: Camaraderie. During her interviews, these troops really poured their hearts out to her when talking about their pals-in-arms. Many of them said they were so much closer to these guys than they were to their wives. In the end, when they were getting stop-lossed, they would go back out of loyalty to their friends. Notice I didn't say loyalty to their country. That doesn't factor into the equation when you're over there. It's all about the bonds with the other soldiers. A common thread amongst all the stories was the moment each of them came to the realization that they would actually die for the fellas to their left and right.

That whole dying bit led Kim to talk about the second most dominant theme: The faceless enemy. Time and again these troops would tell her about how maddening it would be to shoot at and be shot at by people you never see. That, in turn, would only exacerbate the mental trauma. As far as how that trauma manifested itself, Kim incorporated into her script a lot of what she gleaned from the interviews. 'Member that whole wedding present scene I talked about above? That really happened. As did that one scene with a soldier digging a ditch in his front yard because he thought he was still in Iraq.

Kim thought hard about doing the whole thing as a documentary. She finally opted not to do so because by the time it would've come out, all the stuff it would've been documenting would've been a couple years old at least. Documentaries take longer to come out after they're shot for a couple reasons. First, they require a much more demanding post-production, as the raw footage for a doc can easily add up to 10 hours or more. So to whittle that down to a two-hour-or-less timeframe, well... And the second reason is that, let's face it, docs are just not as commercial as fiction films. Stuff like March of the Penguins are the exception. If you're a documentarian, you're lucky if you get any silver screen time at all. Many documentarians are thrilled just to make deals with HBO, Showtime, and the like. Otherwise it's straight to DVD. So if she'd done this as a doc, it could've easily been another year or two before its release. Kim wanted her story to feel more here and now. Plus, writing it as fiction obviously gives her tons more leeway in terms of how she wants to tell the story.

As far as her cast went, she said that she had the rare privilege of auditioning everyone. Even Ryan Phillipe had to audition. He nailed it, though. She figures that, since he's got two kids who he obviously adores, it was easy for him to nail those emotional beats. The one guy she couldn't stop gushing about, though, was Channing Tatum. As I said above, he hasn't done much (although playing Duke in G.I. Joe will sure as heck change that). So the poor guy had to endure no less than three auditions to land the role of Steve Shriver. Kim said that after the third audition, dude literally told her he would do anything to get the part. One thing about Channing that struck her right away was how much of a manly man he is. Kim feels that being a metrosexual is too much of a thing today with guys, so it was refreshing to her to meet someone like Channing. His ma sent Kim a ton of his childhood photos so she could pick and choose whichever ones she wanted in the film to show his character as a toddler. I don't remember seeing any, but Kim says that included in the stack was this one of Channing at age two, hanging from a jungle jim or something. According to her, he was all muscle. Channing's ma told her that they all called him Channimal. Kim took to calling him Manimal on set.

I wanted to ask her where she filmed the Tikrit segment at the beginning, but someone else beat me to it. Her answer tells you how feature film costs can really add up. She and Reid Carolin took soldiers with them on their scouting trip, which included stops in Spain, Italy, and Morocco. In the end the soldiers were most taken with Marrakesh, Morocco. They didn't need a place that was so isolated in the desert. None of their combat ever happens in the desert. This ties back to the whole faceless enemy thing. Our troops in Iraq engage in mainly urban combat, with people shooting at them from the windows of buildings and passing cars.

The last question she was asked was about her next film as well as how the heck long it would take to do it. She's actually got a lot in the pipeline. One flick she's developing is a romantic comedy in the Woody Allen vein but with a gender twist. I'm not sure what she means by that, but if it's got her name on it, you can bet the house I'll be there. She said she's also jonesing to direct a political thriller. Three she cited as inspirations were Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Marathon Man, and All the President's Men. She lamented the dearth of political thrillers nowadays and hoped she could remedy that. Wow, that'd be great, huh? You KNOW I'll be first in line for that.