On DVD: Stop-Loss

In U.S. military parlance, "stop-loss" is the contractual clause that enables the government to keep a soldier on active duty after his service period expires -- basically, it means that once you sign up, they can keep you as long as they like, no matter what they told you when you were recruited.

In Stop-Loss, Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) finds this out the hard way on the day he's due to leave the Army. On leave after leading his squad into a brutal urban ambush in Iraq that killed three of his men and left one devastatingly wounded, King's more than ready for civilian life. But despite serving 11 years as a volunteer and doing two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, the Army's not done with him -- in fact, it may be because he's done his job so well that his commanding officer, played with steel-jawed insincerity by Timothy Olyphant, refuses to cut him loose.

War movies, particularly in times of conflict, are usually preachy and unauthentic, no matter where on the propaganda spectrum they fall. Yet director Kimberley Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) deftly avoids this, mainly by bringing us deep into the lives of King and his unit during the horrible firefight in that Tikrit alley, and then back home in Brazos, Texas on a much-needed leave. Returning to their families amid red-white-and-blue streamers and an all-American ceremony in front of the entire town, the returning heroes -- King, his best friend Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), and fellow soldier Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) -- are uncomfortable at the center of so much attention, each carrying emotional scars that are inconceivable to anyone else in their lives.

Despite what could easily be a turgid, melodramatic set-up, Peirce avoids sentimental claptrap and refuses to cast either the soldiers or the townsfolk as one-dimensional puppets. She does an especially good job with the civilians who are affected second-hand by war -- the loving parents who are both proud and terrified at the prospect of sending their children back to Iraq, and the girlfriends who find themselves held at arm's length by damaged men who are being eaten alive inside. The small-town Texas location feels real, as do the behaviors of the men themselves, and the main reason that Stop-Loss is so powerful is that we come to genuinely care for the characters.

Peirce, who co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Mark Richard, avoids any easy answers when it comes to King's dilemma. Unable to face another tour and riddled with guilt over his mistake that led to the ambush, he decides to go AWOL. While he figures out what to do next, he visits the family of one of his fallen squad-mates, an act of contrition that doesn't help his conscience but yields a contact who can sell him a new identity. King, along with Shriver's unhappy girlfriend Michelle (Abbie Cornish), also makes a stop at the hospital to visit Pvt. Rico Rodriguez (Victor Rasuk), a blind amputee following the squad's devastation in Iraq, finding the soldier's cheerful optimism both puzzling and enlightening. At each step of his journey, King tries to sort out what, exactly, he should do, and finds himself unable to make an easy decision -- and the film ends without offering any tidy conclusions about what path is the most moral to take.

The acting in Stop-Loss is uniformly excellent, with Phillippe turning in a surprisingly mature, nuanced performance. The always brilliant Gordon-Leavitt gets too little screen time as a neurotic adrenaline junkie who simply can't exist outside of the military, yet can't conform enough to make a success of his service, either. The weak link is Tatum, who does a decent but unexceptional job with his fairly clichéd, "boo-rah" character -- it may be that, compared to the better performances by Gordon-Leavitt and Phillippe, "good enough" simply isn't.

The stop-loss order creates what John Kerry called a "back-door draft" during a 2004 speech, conscripting soldiers in our ostensibly volunteer army to extended, involuntary terms of service. The policy has been challenged in the courts several times, but to no effect. According to Department of Defense data, 58,300 soldiers -- about 1 percent of those on active duty -- were affected by stop-loss from 2002 through April 2008, and in a time of war it's important that young people are made aware of what they might face should they choose to enlist. That Peirce's movie is actually a good one is a bonus, and may go far to educate those who might be affected by the policy so they can make informed decisions.

The Paramount/MTV release gets nice treatment on home video, with a fine audio commentary by director/producer/co-writer Kimberley Peirce with occasional input from Mark Richard. Perice's remarks are scene-specific and enlightening -- and she's an excellent story-teller, making it a treat to listen to. There are a couple of good featurettes, "The Making of Stop-Loss" (21 min.) and "A Day in Boot Camp" (10 min.), plus 11 deleted scenes with optional commentary, and trailers of other Paramount releases.

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Dawn Taylor loves her country, but mistrusts her government.

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