What happens when you don't get discharged when you expect?

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2008)

In the military, STOP LOSS, means extending a military person in the Guard or Reserves, or on active duty, beyond what their normal separation date would be.
Those who join the military agree to this provision under paragraph 9c of the enlistment contract states: "In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless my enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States."
The Department of Defense maintains that the term "war" means anytime America's Armed Forces are engaged in hostile conflict, and not just "war declared by Congress."
And that is the theme of this movie. We see a drive-by shooting in Iraq that turns out to be an ambush when the car stops in an alley. Most survive but not all do, under the leadership of SSgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe). When he and his men return home to Texas, they know it is also time for their discharge from the Army. But instead King is "stop lossed" and he has much difficulty dealing with it.
The 20-minute DVD extra with the writer/director (of 'Girls Don't Cry' fame) is very interesting, as she interviewed quite a number of men and women who were in Iraq, some affected by the "stop loss" clause. She sought to make this fictional story as real as possible, not to make a political statement on the "right" or "wrong" of the situations, but to describe it from the soldier's point of view, and some difficult choices they have to make.
Abbie Cornish is good as King family friend Michelle, engaged to one of the men, Channing Tatum as Sgt. Steve Shriver. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Tommy Burgess, Rob Brown is Isaac 'Eyeball' Butler.
Timothy Olyphant is effective as Lt. Col. Boot Miller, whom King must answer to.
SPOILERS: King is determined to avoid extending his enlistment. He first tries to go to Washington with a naive belief his congressman can help, then he decides to see a NY lawyer who can get him a new identity and situate him in Canada. Eventually however King and his family end up near the Mexican border and, when he considers what his life would be away from all that the knew and loved, he relented, and reported for duty and deployment back to Iraq.