Movie review: "Stop-Loss" explores unchecked emotions

Stop-loss is a term the government uses to define the action it takes to keep a soldier in the military past his or her regular tour. It's clearly a stop-gap method by the military to avoid the draft.

Like the commitment to the national guard — as many guardsmen these past years have found out — in and among the fine print in a recruit's contract are many loopholes available to our government.

The new film "Stop-Loss" is ultimately about the maltreatment and general unfairness put upon our soldiers. It is another in a long, sad line of films and books detailing the plight of the soldier as he or she deals with harsh conditions, the feeling of abandonment, the realization that they might be cannon fodder or just the incredible poor treatment by our government. A moment's thought can recall indignities ranging from Word War I soldiers marching on Washington to rat-infested V.A. hospitals.

We ask them, along with their families and loved ones, to make the ultimate sacrifice while demanding complete adherence. If our country demands this behavior from our soldiers and then treats them with contempt, the outcome usually ends in one of two ways: acceptance or rebellion. And sometimes the clarity of this either/or choice is hard to determine.

In the film, Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has done his time in Iraq. He's seen the worst of the worst and wants nothing more than to go home. But he's been stop-lossed; he is to report back in a month. King feels that the government should honor its side of the bargain and goes AWOL. The remainder of the film covers his flight and the decision he has to make: Stay and fight the system, assume a new identity and go to Canada or go back in. His final choice, and most of the film, isn't much more than an exploration of unchecked emotions in a closed and repressive environment.

Though the film is well-made and well-acted, the subject seemed to get in the way of the drama. Unlike the recent "In the Valley of Elah," which took a deep and harsh subject and created a dynamic story, "Stop-Loss" never breaks away from the subject. It sometimes felt that it would rather be a PBS documentary than a fictional film.

And sad to say, a PBS Frontline documentary on stop-loss would probably have been more dynamic, touching and heartbreaking.