Ok, so do not watch this movie if you are the type of viewer who demands a solid uplifting arc at the end of depressing films. You know the type. Hero is happy, hero gets screwed over then the last twenty minutes of the film hero finds a reason to carry on and ends up super stoked about life. Not this movie. It ends on a positive note, but it puts you through the wringer to get there.
In The Messenger Woody Harrelson plays Tony Stone, a casualty notification officer. He is assigned to notofy NOKs, or next of kin, that their loved ones have been killed in Iraq. Cheery stuff, right? Well add to that the fact that he is also assigned to train Ben Foster's character, Will Montgomery, to do the job with him. Montgomery is a recently returned war vet who was given a medal for heroism he is clearly, deeply uncomfortable having received.
Both men are ordered to adhere to strict protocol in notifying the families of the dead servicemen. In doing so they come off as unfeeling, uncaring griefbots. They speak in monotone, adhere to a script and under no circumstances touch the NOKs. This contrasts greatly with the scenes of the characters off duty. Their profoundly damaged psyches at having been in war are hammered every day as they serve as repositories for the outpouring of misery the next of kin aim at them. The wounds these two characters have are deep and festering and everyday their job of notifying only serves to reopen them.
The closest movie I can think of to compare this to is Copolla's Garden's of Stone. In both movies we get to see service men performing wartime duties on the home front. These are men who because of post traumatic stress disorder, a feeling that they are part of a unit that is doing its part while they are not, or just a general inability to reaclimate to civilian life feel a deep cognitive dissonance. The dissonance is most deeply underlined when one of the next of kin, played by Steve Buscemi asks the Stone and Montgomery why they did not die in Iraq. It is a question that both characters ask themselves every day.
The movie is not completely wrist slittingly depressing. There are some uplifting moments in the camaraderie between Stone and Montgomery. What is most important is that the movie is good and it is good because the parts that in a bigger budget movie might be over done are pitch perfect here. The director uses the right amount of restraint in order to show the notification scenes in a real present way. Every time the two soldiers notify a family one feels as if one were really watching it happen, not just a theatrical representation of it.
All of the soldier's feelings are completely internalized. So much of them is shut off that it as if they, too are as dead as the soldiers on whom they are reporting. The Messenger is an important movie in that it shows the real human cost of the war. Very few media outlets have done this and the deaths and injuries resulting from Iraq are too profound for us as a society to ignore. In ten or twenty years this movie will be remembered as one of the better films about the Iraq war.
Here is the film's trailer.
You should rent this movie if:
1. You are into smaller independent films.
2. You like your war movies nuanced.
3. You were for the war.
You should buy this movie if:
1. Woody Harrelson
2. You are a Steve Buscemi completist.
3. It really is a great character study, war movie and buddy film all rolled into one.
Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy The Messenger on DVD for reasonable price:
Here is a link to the Netfix Roku player. You can use this to stream netflix watch it instantly films and tv right to your television:
In The Messenger Woody Harrelson plays Tony Stone, a casualty notification officer. He is assigned to notofy NOKs, or next of kin, that their loved ones have been killed in Iraq. Cheery stuff, right? Well add to that the fact that he is also assigned to train Ben Foster's character, Will Montgomery, to do the job with him. Montgomery is a recently returned war vet who was given a medal for heroism he is clearly, deeply uncomfortable having received.
Both men are ordered to adhere to strict protocol in notifying the families of the dead servicemen. In doing so they come off as unfeeling, uncaring griefbots. They speak in monotone, adhere to a script and under no circumstances touch the NOKs. This contrasts greatly with the scenes of the characters off duty. Their profoundly damaged psyches at having been in war are hammered every day as they serve as repositories for the outpouring of misery the next of kin aim at them. The wounds these two characters have are deep and festering and everyday their job of notifying only serves to reopen them.
The closest movie I can think of to compare this to is Copolla's Garden's of Stone. In both movies we get to see service men performing wartime duties on the home front. These are men who because of post traumatic stress disorder, a feeling that they are part of a unit that is doing its part while they are not, or just a general inability to reaclimate to civilian life feel a deep cognitive dissonance. The dissonance is most deeply underlined when one of the next of kin, played by Steve Buscemi asks the Stone and Montgomery why they did not die in Iraq. It is a question that both characters ask themselves every day.
The movie is not completely wrist slittingly depressing. There are some uplifting moments in the camaraderie between Stone and Montgomery. What is most important is that the movie is good and it is good because the parts that in a bigger budget movie might be over done are pitch perfect here. The director uses the right amount of restraint in order to show the notification scenes in a real present way. Every time the two soldiers notify a family one feels as if one were really watching it happen, not just a theatrical representation of it.
All of the soldier's feelings are completely internalized. So much of them is shut off that it as if they, too are as dead as the soldiers on whom they are reporting. The Messenger is an important movie in that it shows the real human cost of the war. Very few media outlets have done this and the deaths and injuries resulting from Iraq are too profound for us as a society to ignore. In ten or twenty years this movie will be remembered as one of the better films about the Iraq war.
Here is the film's trailer.
You should rent this movie if:
1. You are into smaller independent films.
2. You like your war movies nuanced.
3. You were for the war.
You should buy this movie if:
1. Woody Harrelson
2. You are a Steve Buscemi completist.
3. It really is a great character study, war movie and buddy film all rolled into one.
Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy The Messenger on DVD for reasonable price:
Here is a link to the Netfix Roku player. You can use this to stream netflix watch it instantly films and tv right to your television:
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