Home of the Brave [Blu-ray] [2006] [US Import] [2007]

Mere weeks away from learning that their unit has received orders to go home from Iraq, various soldiers go on a humanitarian mission and run into an ambush. Chaos ensues, and all receive an injury in one way, shape, or form. Weeks later they are all in Spokane, Washington and the four main characters (Vanessa - Jessica Biel, Will - Samuel L. Jackson, Jamal - Fiddy, and Tommy - Brian Presely) deal with piecing their lives together while many hate the war, and by proxy, hold that hatred against the soldiers involved in it. The rest is just a person-by-person experience of individuals coping with semi-related post-war lives.

Home of the Brave is controversial in that it's difficult for a movie-maker to relay a message that's very positive of the military life or the struggles of a soldier - and keep a job in Hollywood - but it's clear that the creators of this movie didn't even remotely try. They paint a bleak picture of abandoned, abused, and shell-shocked soldiers who drink uncontrollably, can't control their anger, and can't relate to the "civilian life" outside of the foreign world of the military. In that sense, Home of the Brave reminded me in many ways of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Pain often accompanies scars, but what doesn't always coincide mentally, however, is the visibility of those same scars. Outward appearances don't always convey the truth of trauma or mental difficulties.

With all that said, however, as a former soldier and family member of several generations of soldiers, I can say unequivocally that the image conveyed is hazy to say the least. To be more accurate, it's slanted politically, with hints and outright displays of ignorant anti-war rhetoric, and reeks of the same type of elitist comments made by John Kerry about the correlation between being in the military and a lack of intelligence or education.

While the biased, hyper-focus of the movie is on the troubled few, what's left out is the great majority who deal with their troubles without a comment or complaint. Therein exists the truism of bravery, courage, honor, and sacrifice of the majority, and perhaps it would do the Hollywood folks a bit of good to concentrate a little more on those stories, because I've heard several and I'm sure there are countless more.

I couldn't even make it through this joke of a movie. Decent cast with the worst script ever laced with an agenda and biased outlook make this movie look like some crap that was made for TV by PBS or something. The basics of the movie are that EVERY soldier that goes to Iraq comes back either in a body bag or in pieces, ignoring the fact that more Marines have died in motorcycle crashes than in combat in Iraq. It portrays every soldier as some drunk lunatic fool. Of course that's what hollywood thinks anybody that enlists in a 100% VOLUNTEER army is, even though they constantly profess they are "against the war but support the troops". You'd be hard pressed to find many people that are pleased with how the conflict in Iraq has gone from the beginning but this movie is just nonsensical over the top garbage propaganda. The movie had plenty of potential if it would have been more realistic. Maybe then it would have been easier to write some decent dialogue for the cast to work with.

Within the first 20 minutes I knew that this would be an overall terrible movie.

The "war" aspect of it is EXTREMELY inaccurate....M-16A2s currently in use are NOT fully automatic, a small squad of three soldiers would not go running from building to building nor EVER pursue 2 individuals through alleyways for hundreds of meters, and they would definitely NEVER leave a wounded soldier alone and say "Don't worry a medic is on it's way", and in an ambush two unarmored vehicles, or any for that matter, would split off the main group and drive off on their own. All this happens within 10 minutes of each other. As a currently soldier, I wanted to throw my size 10 boot through my TV.

And then comes the main point of this movie (wait, is there even a point to this nonsensical crap?) which is their return home and struggles with PTSD. Sadly, the American public is overall blind to what PTSD truly is, and this movie doesn't help. Not every soldier, even those with PTSD, struggle with their lives, violence, and alcoholism. It seems this movie was written by anti-American, anti-soldier, bitter individuals with a grudge against the Army. It portrays them as hopeless losers who can't function in society at all. So, sadly, this movie continues to add to the stigma of the wounded.

Aside from people like Mark Cuban and Stephen King, who think all soldiers are murders and rapists or uneducated idiots (seriously, look at what either of these two say!) I can't think of anyone who would watch this movie and enjoy it in the slightest. Even the movie Stop Loss, made by MTV of all companies, was far more accurate in depicting PTSD.