In the Valley of Elah

Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

1 Samuel 17:19


Halfway through In the Valley of Elah, the latest film from writer/director Paul Haggis, Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) retells the story of David and Goliath in his gravelly drawl. How Haggis intends for his audience to relate this most famous Bible story to this movie's story of the investigation into the murder of a returned Iraq War veteran is ambiguous. In the Valley of Elah is "inspired" by actual events. I wasn't familiar with the events behind the film, so the outcome of the investigation kept me guessing til the final scenes.

Paul Haggis has become one of the best contemporary writers for the screen, with a string of screenplays reminiscent of the best work of Paul Schrader, among them Million Dollar Baby, Crash and Flags of our Fathers, all of them characterized by moral seriousness and beauty. Pretty good for a guy who once wrote an episode of Walker Texas Ranger. He's a pretty good director too as he proved with Crash and now here.

The war in Iraq has been going on long enough that we're about to be treated to a string of films on the subject. This one may turn out to be one of the best. It doesn't deal with the rightness or wrongness of the policies behind the war, but explores the consequences once our soldiers return home. I do some volunteer work with an organization that serves the homeless, and it's surprising how many chronically homeless men are Vietnam veterans. What's going to happen once the thousands of troops now in Iraq return home? Are stories like the one dramatized in this film a sign of things to come?

Clint Eastwood turned down the part played by Tommy Lee Jones. I could easily imagine Eastwood in the role, but Jones is perfect. His craggy face often shot in close-up, he's able to convey deep emotion without saying a word. For the first time, I was totally won over by Charlize Theron, hardly recognizable in mannish clothes and short brown hair. She, in my opinion, is the moral center of this film. Roger Deakin's washed-out cinematography and Mark Isham's elegiac score are crucial elements to the success of the film. "An elegy" may be the best way to describe In the Valley of Elah. Some may view it simply as an anti-war polemic from liberal Hollywood, but I saw it as a call to realistically count the cost of sending teenagers off to this war (or any war).

GRADE B+