In 2004, in Munro, Tennessee, the former Sergeant and owner of a tow truck Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to contact his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) in Fort Rudd after a period serving in Iraq. However, he is informed that his son is missing in the base and has become Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL). Hank drives to the base to search his son and after an interview with the military staff, he is not convinced of the answers; then he goes to the police precinct telling that Mike is a missing person. However, the jurisdictional conflict between the Army and the police associated to a lack of interest in the case leaves Hank in limbo. Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) feels sympathy for Hank and together they investigated and discover dirty little secrets with an impressive case of dehumanization caused by the invasion and consequent war in Iraq.
"In the Valley of Elah" discloses a sad story of dehumanization of human beings as a side effect of a senseless invasion of a millenary country "to bring democracy", and the most impressive is that it seems that this story was based on a true event. The footages of a destroyed Iraq; the sequences of the boy hit by the Army truck and the dialog of the soldiers; the description of the sadistic torture of an injured person; the dehumanization of the brutal and alienated soldiers under drug influence; and the feelings of Hank expressed by the upside-down flag in the end of the story, make the viewer think about the effects of this invasion in the population of Iraq that lost families, properties, jobs and sees their lives destroyed by invaders without a minimum preparation to deal with their ancient culture and parents, families and friends of the soldiers. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "No Vale das Sombras" ("In the Valley of the Shadows")
"In the Valley of Elah" discloses a sad story of dehumanization of human beings as a side effect of a senseless invasion of a millenary country "to bring democracy", and the most impressive is that it seems that this story was based on a true event. The footages of a destroyed Iraq; the sequences of the boy hit by the Army truck and the dialog of the soldiers; the description of the sadistic torture of an injured person; the dehumanization of the brutal and alienated soldiers under drug influence; and the feelings of Hank expressed by the upside-down flag in the end of the story, make the viewer think about the effects of this invasion in the population of Iraq that lost families, properties, jobs and sees their lives destroyed by invaders without a minimum preparation to deal with their ancient culture and parents, families and friends of the soldiers. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "No Vale das Sombras" ("In the Valley of the Shadows")