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20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 As a former solider, this move is irritatingSep 14, 2008
By Jason
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.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Hollywood Propaganda sinks to a new low....Dec 22, 2008
By Rebdent
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.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Inaccurate, left wing slanted, anti-soldier crapJan 08, 2010
By Mike Edelstein
"If you ain't Cav, you ain't $#it!!!"
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.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 One would wish more were so fortunateApr 23, 2007
By T. Noever
"Author of the TETHYS series"
HotB is about three soldiers returning back from a tour in the ongoing war in Iraq and their adjustment issues. In the leads: Samuel Jackson as army surgeon Will Marsh, who feels guilty about his powerlessness to save people and about having become desensitized to their suffering; Jessica Biel as supply runt Vanessa Price, who got her right hand blown off by a roadside bomb, triggered by a kid with a cellphone; Brian Presley as soldier Tommy Yates, who lost his best friend just days before the scheduled return home as a result of the same ambush that occasioned Vanessa's injury.
That ambush of what amounts to a humanitarian supply convoy is what loosely connects the characters; as Marsh is the first to tend to Vanessa and she briefly catches a glimpse of Yates as well, before everything goes to the dogs of war.
The first segment, in Iraq, portrays some of the pressures of being a soldier, at all levels and in all functions; always having to be on guard, because anything else will kill you. The operative term is 'always'; unrelenting tension and stress, sometimes apparently qualifying as mild, but it never leaves you. For there are people around who hate you and will kill you whenever they can. There are also those who don't hate you and who may even be glad you're there and doing what you're doing, but it's in the nature of things that they will not go out with the same fervor and try to protect you; nor will they speak out in your defense with the same vigor as your opponents. This is, after all, the nature of these things.
So, these three come home--plus a few other, more peripheral, figures--and, unlike is the case in other 'soldiers returning home' movies, nothing much actually happens. Which is part of the problem. For the normality of the life of those they are charged to defend--for whatever reason and motivation--is stifling with its normality and the complete lack of appreciation of their situation by those they return home to. So Marsh walks into a home where his son is disgusted not only at the war, but also at his father being a part of it; plus he has trouble sleeping, because he had gotten so used to not getting much sleep. Vanessa has to deal with being a solo divorced mum whose relationship with former boyfriend, Ray (James McDonald), went to the dogs some time ago, and who has to deal with being a one-handed cripple, who can't accept help even from friendly strangers like Cary (Jeffrey Nordling). Tommy has to deal with his father, who's a good guy but a bit dense and simple; a former buddy who's gone mentally AWOL for a number of reasons, and whose rage focuses on his former girlfriend who isn't interested in him anymore; as well as Tommy's own nagging guilt feelings at leaving his fellow soldiers behind to fight, while his own life's become 'safe'--in a manner of speaking.
The problems at home would have appeared trivial in comparison to those these three faced while in the warzone. But they're not, because all problems and their magnitude are relative. Still, all of them have this notion that they don't fit, all for apparently different reasons--they all are the same.
Irwin Winkler's direction and the script focuses on the ways in which it might be possible to overcome those problems; the manner in which those exposed to the brutalities of war may be redeemed and become, if not 'normal', but at least 'adapted' to life outside a warzone again. In the process the movie is careful to lay open the mood in the US with regards to the Iraq war; both sides of it, and with equal and evenhanded fairness. In the process it avoids making what amounts to a judgment, because that's not what what this movie is all about. It has much more the air of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, which also focused on soldiers, rather than politics; all the time acknowledging that there were political issues, but they were at another level and sometimes had to be put aside--with the notable exception of a certain, entirely justified, cynicism toward all politicians; as well as all those who basically don't end up having to put themselves in harm's way--except maybe in an election, which hardly compares.
The solutions offered by the film are fairly simple, and they have to do with love, understanding, consideration and appreciation; not just as carried out by the professional machinery of organized 'rehabilitation', but by the only ones who can do this in a sustained way: family, friends, neighbors and so on, in an ever-widening circle. And this isn't happening, by and large, though the movie suggests that it might. Sometimes. For the lucky ones. Because, as far as the fate of returned soldiers these days are concerned, all three main protagonists in HotB qualify as 'fortunate'. One would wish that it were more than a few.
The editing of this film is interesting and fits with the need to follow the fates of three separate lives without too much discontinuity as the focus shifts from one person to another and another and back again. It's also difficult to tell the passage of time, but once one gets used to it, it flows easily enough. The moving shots in the warzone contrast with the many static ones 'at home'. Short scenes alternate with long ones in deft timing. The pacing is thoughtful and measured. At the end there are more questions unanswered than at the beginning. Which is as it should be.
9 of 12 found the following review helpful:
When Will, Vanessa, Tommy and Jamal come limping homeMar 14, 2008
By R. Kyle
The story opens with soldiers learning their unit only has two weeks to go before returning home. If you have a sinking feeling in your gut, you're right. The unit's attacked on a humanitarian mission and a near bloodbath results.
The unit does go home to Spokane, WA, but none of them are ready for the 'hearty welcome' and most don't get it, anyway:
Will (Jackson) is a doctor who can't relate to his family or his patients and has taken up drinking
Vanessa (Biel) lost her arm in that attack. She can't relate to her old boyfriend and is having a difficult job as a phys ed teacher.
Tommy (Presley) lost:
* his girlfriend to a "Dear John" letter
* his best friend in the attack mentioned above
* his job when he returned home--oh and his sensitive boss asked: 1. did you shoot someone? 2. did you kill someone?
Jamal (50 cent) girlfriend won't talk to him. He's lost, bitter, and can't even get a discharge.
This is a worthy subject for documentation. The problem is the story's predictable, the dialog is toss-off in many points, and the whole message just gets bogged down.
If you like any of the actors, like war films, etc. give this film a look. In my opinion, "The Valley of Elah" tells the returning soldier story in a more real and better acted fashion.
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