brilliant expose of the "backdoor draft"

Rating: Null/10 (12 April 2008)

On the day he is to be honorably discharged from the service, decorated army Sergeant Brandon King is ordered to return to duty in Iraq, the latest victim of "stop-loss," a term for when soldiers who have fulfilled the terms of their military contract are denied permission to leave the service under penalty of court martial and imprisonment. Brandon, caught emotionally off-guard by the news, impulsively decides to go AWOL, leaving his fellow troops to head back to the Middle East without him. Brandon becomes a fugitive from justice, as much on the run from the memories that haunt him as from the authorities looking to bring him back.
A searing expose on the "backdoor draft," "Stop-Loss" is an extraordinarily powerful drama that shows how men and women who have bravely served their country on the field of battle (along with the loved ones they have left behind) are being betrayed by the very government they fought to defend. Yet, "Stop-Loss" is no star-turn polemic like "Lions for Lambs," but, rather, an intensely personal drama that illuminates its issue in starkly human terms. The grim realities of post-war trauma - both physical and psychological - are vividly dramatized in the persons of Brandon and his buddies, all of whom have returned to their small Texas town radically changed men. But the film is also about that special sense of camaraderie and group cohesion that develops among soldiers who have fought side by side under hellish circumstances - and the lifelong bond that results.
Despite the wide-ranging nature of the theme, writer/director Kimberley ("Boys Don't Cry") Peirce and co-writer Mark Richard keep the drama modest in scope and intimate in scale. It's true that there are times when the screenplay threatens to fall victim to its own contrivance, but the quality of performance and authenticity of detail always bring the movie back into line.
Long a fine but under-appreciated actor, Ryan Philippe truly comes into his own in this film, delivering a performance of such raw truth and emotional complexity that we literally cannot takes our eyes off him for the duration of the movie. Ditto for Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Victor Rasuk, all equally superb as men who served alongside Brandon in Iraq and who now have their own personal, war-related demons to wage battle against. Abbie Cornish is also excellent as the friend who accompanies Brandon on his panic-stricken flight across the country.
There are those who will object to "Stop-Loss" on strictly political grounds, seeing it as yet another anti-war diatribe designed to make the Bush administration look bad. Yet, the film transcends politics, honoring the bravery and valor of the soldiers while reserving the right to question the wisdom and morality of those in power who would send these fine young men on such a fool's errand in the first place - and then insist on doing it over and over again. I frankly can't imagine anything more pro-American or pro-troop than that.