Taking Chance--- HBO Original Movie <--- Can't wait to see it
02-23-2009, 08:48 AM
#21
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Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: retired
Posts: 992
I haven't even seen it yet, but I hope it encourages public support to oppose the President's intent to allow the media access to Dover. It enrages me to think of the media using flag draped coffins to further their polititical agenda. They haven't earned the right to be there.
02-23-2009, 12:42 PM
#22
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Joined APC: Feb 2009
Position: I am the Stig
Posts: 281
By highest bidder, do you mean that there was ACTUALLY competition for the movie? OR, did the other studios see it as too much of a risk to invest in?
02-23-2009, 03:19 PM
#23
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Joined APC: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,333
'Taking Chance' follows a fallen Marine's journey home
Taking Chance
* * * * (out of four)
HBO, Saturday, 8 ET/PT
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who escorts the coffin of a young Marine home.
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
There is a power and beauty to restraint that seldom finds its way onto TV.
A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making. Its story — a real-life example of the military's little-publicized policy of providing a uniformed escort for every fallen soldier — is too small for a wide-release feature film, even with star Kevin Bacon attached. And yet it's a story that should be seen in every American home, and one that, if you don't know it, will leave you wondering why you don't know it.
INTERVIEW: The story behind the HBO film
The man taking Chance home is Michael Strobl (Bacon), the Marine lieutenant colonel who co-wrote the film and wrote the journal on which it's based. A Desert Storm veteran turned stateside analyst, Strobl spends each night scrolling through the Iraq War casualty lists. He spots the name of Chance Phelps, 19, and even though he's considered too senior an officer to escort Chance's remains, he volunteers.
And so, as the body makes its way from Iraq to the Dover, Del., mortuary to Chance's tiny Wyoming hometown, we follow two journeys. One is that of a young man who died before his time; the other is of a middle-aged man seeking to honor the sacrifice of those he supervises while reconciling himself to his own service.
Yet there's also a larger tale being told here about the rituals we wrap around the random ugliness of war. Director Ross Katz, who co-wrote the film, traces each step without undue comment or sentiment — the soldiers loading ice into coffins and coffins into planes, the care shown to follow every one of the complicated guidelines that govern the process. And most movingly of all, he shows us the effect that the process has on most everyone it touches — the impromptu gestures of kindness, the signs of respect and remorse.
Despite its larger implications, this is a small, tightly contained movie, and Bacon anchors it with a properly contained performance. Mixing the gravity and regrets of age with a still-vital masculinity, Bacon projects a dignity and depth that allows him to convey both the pride this officer takes in his duty and his embarrassment at being praised for it.
It may strike some as affectless, but anyone familiar with Marines will likely recognize in Bacon the almost exaggerated courtesy officers use when officially out in public.
It is somewhat odd to see a story about war that is largely without conflict. (Was there no one Strobl met who was bitter over Chance's loss or saw it as a waste?) Still, this is an undeniably heart-rending film, never more so than at the end, when we're finally shown photos and home movies of the real Chance Phelps.
"I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died," Strobl says when his own mission is over. "But today, I miss him."
So will you.
Taking Chance
* * * * (out of four)
HBO, Saturday, 8 ET/PT
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who escorts the coffin of a young Marine home.
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
There is a power and beauty to restraint that seldom finds its way onto TV.
A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making. Its story — a real-life example of the military's little-publicized policy of providing a uniformed escort for every fallen soldier — is too small for a wide-release feature film, even with star Kevin Bacon attached. And yet it's a story that should be seen in every American home, and one that, if you don't know it, will leave you wondering why you don't know it.
INTERVIEW: The story behind the HBO film
The man taking Chance home is Michael Strobl (Bacon), the Marine lieutenant colonel who co-wrote the film and wrote the journal on which it's based. A Desert Storm veteran turned stateside analyst, Strobl spends each night scrolling through the Iraq War casualty lists. He spots the name of Chance Phelps, 19, and even though he's considered too senior an officer to escort Chance's remains, he volunteers.
And so, as the body makes its way from Iraq to the Dover, Del., mortuary to Chance's tiny Wyoming hometown, we follow two journeys. One is that of a young man who died before his time; the other is of a middle-aged man seeking to honor the sacrifice of those he supervises while reconciling himself to his own service.
Yet there's also a larger tale being told here about the rituals we wrap around the random ugliness of war. Director Ross Katz, who co-wrote the film, traces each step without undue comment or sentiment — the soldiers loading ice into coffins and coffins into planes, the care shown to follow every one of the complicated guidelines that govern the process. And most movingly of all, he shows us the effect that the process has on most everyone it touches — the impromptu gestures of kindness, the signs of respect and remorse.
Despite its larger implications, this is a small, tightly contained movie, and Bacon anchors it with a properly contained performance. Mixing the gravity and regrets of age with a still-vital masculinity, Bacon projects a dignity and depth that allows him to convey both the pride this officer takes in his duty and his embarrassment at being praised for it.
It may strike some as affectless, but anyone familiar with Marines will likely recognize in Bacon the almost exaggerated courtesy officers use when officially out in public.
It is somewhat odd to see a story about war that is largely without conflict. (Was there no one Strobl met who was bitter over Chance's loss or saw it as a waste?) Still, this is an undeniably heart-rending film, never more so than at the end, when we're finally shown photos and home movies of the real Chance Phelps.
"I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died," Strobl says when his own mission is over. "But today, I miss him."
So will you.
02-23-2009, 04:25 PM
#24
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: retired
Posts: 992
'Taking Chance' follows a fallen Marine's journey home
Taking Chance
* * * * (out of four)
HBO, Saturday, 8 ET/PT
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who escorts the coffin of a young Marine home.
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
There is a power and beauty to restraint that seldom finds its way onto TV.
A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making. Its story — a real-life example of the military's little-publicized policy of providing a uniformed escort for every fallen soldier — is too small for a wide-release feature film, even with star Kevin Bacon attached. And yet it's a story that should be seen in every American home, and one that, if you don't know it, will leave you wondering why you don't know it.
INTERVIEW: The story behind the HBO film
The man taking Chance home is Michael Strobl (Bacon), the Marine lieutenant colonel who co-wrote the film and wrote the journal on which it's based. A Desert Storm veteran turned stateside analyst, Strobl spends each night scrolling through the Iraq War casualty lists. He spots the name of Chance Phelps, 19, and even though he's considered too senior an officer to escort Chance's remains, he volunteers.
And so, as the body makes its way from Iraq to the Dover, Del., mortuary to Chance's tiny Wyoming hometown, we follow two journeys. One is that of a young man who died before his time; the other is of a middle-aged man seeking to honor the sacrifice of those he supervises while reconciling himself to his own service.
Yet there's also a larger tale being told here about the rituals we wrap around the random ugliness of war. Director Ross Katz, who co-wrote the film, traces each step without undue comment or sentiment — the soldiers loading ice into coffins and coffins into planes, the care shown to follow every one of the complicated guidelines that govern the process. And most movingly of all, he shows us the effect that the process has on most everyone it touches — the impromptu gestures of kindness, the signs of respect and remorse.
Despite its larger implications, this is a small, tightly contained movie, and Bacon anchors it with a properly contained performance. Mixing the gravity and regrets of age with a still-vital masculinity, Bacon projects a dignity and depth that allows him to convey both the pride this officer takes in his duty and his embarrassment at being praised for it.
It may strike some as affectless, but anyone familiar with Marines will likely recognize in Bacon the almost exaggerated courtesy officers use when officially out in public.
It is somewhat odd to see a story about war that is largely without conflict. (Was there no one Strobl met who was bitter over Chance's loss or saw it as a waste?) Still, this is an undeniably heart-rending film, never more so than at the end, when we're finally shown photos and home movies of the real Chance Phelps.
"I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died," Strobl says when his own mission is over. "But today, I miss him."
So will you.
Taking Chance
* * * * (out of four)
HBO, Saturday, 8 ET/PT
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who escorts the coffin of a young Marine home.
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
There is a power and beauty to restraint that seldom finds its way onto TV.
A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making. Its story — a real-life example of the military's little-publicized policy of providing a uniformed escort for every fallen soldier — is too small for a wide-release feature film, even with star Kevin Bacon attached. And yet it's a story that should be seen in every American home, and one that, if you don't know it, will leave you wondering why you don't know it.
INTERVIEW: The story behind the HBO film
The man taking Chance home is Michael Strobl (Bacon), the Marine lieutenant colonel who co-wrote the film and wrote the journal on which it's based. A Desert Storm veteran turned stateside analyst, Strobl spends each night scrolling through the Iraq War casualty lists. He spots the name of Chance Phelps, 19, and even though he's considered too senior an officer to escort Chance's remains, he volunteers.
And so, as the body makes its way from Iraq to the Dover, Del., mortuary to Chance's tiny Wyoming hometown, we follow two journeys. One is that of a young man who died before his time; the other is of a middle-aged man seeking to honor the sacrifice of those he supervises while reconciling himself to his own service.
Yet there's also a larger tale being told here about the rituals we wrap around the random ugliness of war. Director Ross Katz, who co-wrote the film, traces each step without undue comment or sentiment — the soldiers loading ice into coffins and coffins into planes, the care shown to follow every one of the complicated guidelines that govern the process. And most movingly of all, he shows us the effect that the process has on most everyone it touches — the impromptu gestures of kindness, the signs of respect and remorse.
Despite its larger implications, this is a small, tightly contained movie, and Bacon anchors it with a properly contained performance. Mixing the gravity and regrets of age with a still-vital masculinity, Bacon projects a dignity and depth that allows him to convey both the pride this officer takes in his duty and his embarrassment at being praised for it.
It may strike some as affectless, but anyone familiar with Marines will likely recognize in Bacon the almost exaggerated courtesy officers use when officially out in public.
It is somewhat odd to see a story about war that is largely without conflict. (Was there no one Strobl met who was bitter over Chance's loss or saw it as a waste?) Still, this is an undeniably heart-rending film, never more so than at the end, when we're finally shown photos and home movies of the real Chance Phelps.
"I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died," Strobl says when his own mission is over. "But today, I miss him."
So will you.
02-23-2009, 05:41 PM
#25
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: retired
Posts: 992
"If you have HBO I can wholeheartedly recommend that you watch this movie, with generous amounts of Kleenex handy.
But this is more then a movie about the sacrifice of a Marine, it is the story of America. The America we don't see on our televisions, but the one in which we all live. Too much of the attention in the media is to that 5% that manage to make asses out of themselves and therefore get more then their amount of attention.
While it is the story about the honor and respect that is shown to the fallen by the military, a much bigger part of the movie shows us just how decent and respectful most Americans are of those who put on the uniform and are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect the rest of us and our way of lives."
JammieWearingFool
But this is more then a movie about the sacrifice of a Marine, it is the story of America. The America we don't see on our televisions, but the one in which we all live. Too much of the attention in the media is to that 5% that manage to make asses out of themselves and therefore get more then their amount of attention.
While it is the story about the honor and respect that is shown to the fallen by the military, a much bigger part of the movie shows us just how decent and respectful most Americans are of those who put on the uniform and are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect the rest of us and our way of lives."
JammieWearingFool
