(2007) Into the valley of Iraq roared the mighty American military machine, its commander in chief daring Islamist enemies to fight, challenging them with "bring it on," when suddenly in the road stood a small child. Inspired by events that took place in July 2003 - Lanny Davis's son Richard was murdered at Fort Benning, GA - from an article in Playboy by Mark Boal, Paul Haggis directed this disconcerting film of a father's search for answers from his own screenplay.

In Munro, Tennessee, on November 1st, 2004, retired Army-MP sergeant Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) and his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) receive word that their son Mike (Jonathan Tucker), an Army specialist, recently returned from Iraq, is missing from his barracks at Fort Rudd, New Mexico, and considered AWOL. Ten years ago their older son David, also a soldier, died in a helicopter crash. In his pickup truck on his way to Ft Rudd (a fictional military base), Hank stops to assist a man with raising the American flag properly; an immigrant from El Salvador, he'd hoisted the flag upside down, a signal of international distress.

Upon his arrival Hank is greeted by Sgt Dan Carnelli (James Franco), who shows the father his son's quarters; using sleight of hand while distracting Carnelli with a Bible, Hank removes Mike's videophone. From the videophone's memory, Hank hires someone to extract the corrupted media files and send them to him via the Internet; intermittently these images provide ambiguous clues of Mike (who's called "Doc") with his squad in Iraq. In the background throughout the picture, we can hear President Bush reciting a speech of progress in the war, a radio pundit, TV new reports of the battle for Fallujah.

Frustrated with the military's polite refusal to allow him further access to information, Hank approaches the local police, where he gets the runaround, referring him to the MPs. At the same time body parts - chopped up, partially burned, and scattered by predators - are found in a field and identified as the remains of Mike Deerfield; the local authorities happily cede jurisdiction to the Army. Forensic examination reveals over 40 stab wounds; suspicion falls on Mexican drug gangs, implying Mike had been involved with drugs.

Returning to the police station, Hank persuades detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) to take him to the crime scene where after surveying the area he complains of sloppy investigative procedures. The single mother of a young son, Emily (a fictionalization not in the original account), whose male sexist colleagues assume she got promoted from traffic cop to detective by sleeping with police chief Buchwald (James Brolin), eventually decides to take a personal interest in the case. Meanwhile, Hank interviews a member of Mike's squad and looks into local haunts, bars and strip clubs, where Mike might have been on the night of his death.

Flying out from Munro, Joan accuses Hank of having been the cause of taking both her sons away from her; later she calls to say that a package Mike had sent from Iraq has arrived; Hank asks her not to open it and put it away until he can return home.

Having regained the right to jurisdiction and investigation from the military, Emily invites Hank over to her house and fixes a meal; while she's cleaning up, he attends to her son David, telling the child the story of King David of the Israelites and how as a boy in the Valley of Elah, David had confronted the giant Goliath of the Philistines: first David had to defeat his own fear to have the courage to lure the monster close enough to sling his stone and slay him. Afterward, having overheard the Old Testament tale, Emily says to Hank: "You know that story isn't true." He replies that it's even found in the Qur'an.

Painstakingly Hank and Emily gather evidence, enough to suspect the members of Mike's squad of having lied in their original depositions. Re-interrogating Spc Gordon Bonner (Jake McLaughlin), Spc Ennis Long (Mahcad Brooks), and Cpl Steve Penning (Wes Chatham) produces another version of the events, involving a fight between Bonner and Mike and a visit to a hooker; their explanation for their earlier fiction was to protect from his father Mike's sullied reputation. Hank is convinced the three men are not guilty; but another soldier from the squad, Pvt Robert Ortiez (Victor Wolf), is also AWOL (information not previously acknowledged by Sgt Carnelli). Mexican, his face having appeared among the images found in Mike's videos, an example of the Army's having lowered its standards for enlistment, Ortiez becomes everyone's quarry.

What Hank finally discovers about his son and the cause of his death upends his previous perception of the world.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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