So many of us go to the movies to be entertained - to escape from the daily monotony - to believe the underdog can taste victory in the end - to watch sexy just happen or romance spark to life in an hour and a half because it takes so much effort in real time. As a majority, we don't go to learn or think or question ourselves. This may be why this movie received such terrible reviews. It may also be why it earned so little money in the US, while garnering greater profits internationally.
Carnahan's thought provoking screenplay does not give a viewer any satisfactory answers to the predicament we find ourselves with the current war extending from Iraq to Afghanistan, but it raises many brave questions, pointing such a broad finger, that the only answers you may discover after watching it will be within yourself. Carnahan's inspiration was drawn from his own apathy over a new's report of drowned US soldiers. He was stunned by his own response and wrote this to ask the questions out loud that all of us should be asking.
Robert Redford directs the action of the film as well as starring in it along with Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. While the "action" of the film is limited to a few midnight battle scenes, the words spoken by each character pack a powerful punch. One critic said this film feels more like a "parental chiding," but, I must say that no child who is in the wrong ever likes the correction. Have we found ourselves, so quickly repeating history that we, the people, are determined to be apathetic toward the current political policy because the opposing voices of the sixties became too violent. Is there no middle ground? Is there not a place where we can agree to disagree? How many children don't even care about their educations anymore because their parents have decided the cost of contention, of voicing an opinion or standing your ground is too great.
This film is not pushing for "peace at any price." But it asks the price of closing your eyes to those who would lead us for their own pride or purposes rather than the good of all. It is difficult to know the heart of a man when you stand in the voting booth, especially if you do not know you own heart. The final words of the film still echo... "Do you know what you are going to get?" Do you? Do you know with a certainty what your life will be? Will you engage? Or will you remain on autopilot?
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