War, Movies, and Deeper Meaning

Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Saving Private Ryan come to mind as movies that captured the visceral experience of combat in such a way that the films demanded serious attention.

Rarely, however, do three films in one year capture the psychological and emotional experience of service members and families with the dexterity, nuance, and attention to culture contained in 2009’s Academy Award nominated The Messenger and Academy Award winner The Hurt Locker. A third film, HBO’s Taking Chance, also deserves recognition as a film that sheds light on the rarely-seen ceremony that follows the loss of a warrior. While each film captures appropriate attention as entertainment vehicles (Hollywood depictions that they are), they also demand a closer look for those of us interested in the world of military psychology.

Taking Chance follows the journey from combat to funeral of a Marine killed in action. In addition to providing a worthy plot line for the film, the honor and dignity afforded the Marine throughout this journey puts a laser-like focus on the process of mourning a profound loss of a service member. Consider scenes in the film depicting this process – the exquisite care in attending to and preparing the Marine’s body, uniform, and casket; the personal escort without interruption from Dover Air Force Base along roads and airways across country; the placement and movement of casket throughout; the impeccable uniform and ceremony of the escort. Each scene offers evidence of our need to attend to a grieving process that cannot be adequately satisfied by any other means.

Taking Chance depicts how the death of a service member touches both individual and cultural identities, representing a loss within our culture mourned by countless people honoring the values and sacrifice of the fallen soldier. Consider the impromptu funeral procession as Chance is escorted home, when a dozen cars and trucks on a remote American highway turn on their lights and assist in carrying Chance along his final journey. The need to mourn his loss is felt deeply and widely and with exquisite dignity – before the process of saying goodbye can be considered complete.

The Messenger similarly offers testimony to the honor – and heartache – of the notification process following a combat death. We watch compassionately as the notified families react with grief, numbing, rage, denial, anguish, and detachment as word of lost loved-ones reaches their doorstep. The Messenger goes far further than the storyline of this powerful process, however, for it becomes a deep depiction of stigma both within and outside of military uniform. The schism among service members who have deployed and those who have not shapes the relationship of the two main characters: one is a 20-year career service member never deployed, the other a younger soldier recently injured in combat nearing the end of his service. Each has dignity and vulnerabilities. Deep emotional wounds separate the characters before their shared mission provides the bridge towards rapprochement; a re-joining of the honor and shared value that bonds service members together.

The Messenger also provides a glimpse of the challenges of reintegration following deployment. Even with the main character not yet separated from service, he faces a grand struggle to be separated from his unit, to recover from injury that few around him can see, and to form new relationships in the wake of being emotionally wounded and changed. The movie is a journey of the main character navigating this complex, sometimes painful course with dignity, despite deep psychological conflict.

The most celebrated of these films, Academy Award Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, is an extended profile of character, culture, identity, and lifestyle among those who perform some of the most dangerous jobs in the most hazardous places in the world. Jeremy Renner portrays a soldier whose singular focus is on performing a task with precisely zero margin of error – finding and disarming IEDs. The movie is a study of the culture and mindset of a service member who can find solace, purpose, and serenity despite this dangerous mission that threatens his very existence in measures of microseconds.

The Hurt Locker illuminates several important elements common among those with these dangerous missions – from the sense of purpose to the use of alcohol to the pursuit of an adrenaline rush. This is juxtaposed with the pursuit and the challenges of the “normal”: when cleaning gutters or shopping for cereal is found to be more difficult than disarming an IED under potential sniper fire.

The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, and Taking Chance deserve recognition for the complexity, authenticity, depth, and respect shown with their depiction of the experience of service members. How gratifying it is to have a window into the deeper elements of military culture and psychology.