For every The Best Years of Our Lives, there are dozens of Act of Valors. Despite fairly few war films concerning the aftermath and coming home, PTSD has inflicted millions of soldiers and, most recently, cases pertaining to veterans of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have made headlines and become more topical, stripping away taboos.
Jason Hall’s Thank You for Your Service, which depicts the emotional trauma of several Iraq War veterans upon returning home, means well and its message — we need to better take care of our own — is felt loud and clear. Based on the popular and acclaimed book by David Finkel, which featured soldiers struggling to readjust to family and civilian life, it doesn’t flinch when it comes time to depict a soldier at their lowest state post-war. The deep psychological black hole some of these heroes must endure upon return has given way to a higher rate of suicide among soldiers over the last decade.
Hall dealt with similar topics in his screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper — a much different film than his directorial debut, but nevertheless one that was still intensely ingrained in its cause to make mental illness among military members more known within the current zeitgeist. Finkel’s book had many characters, at least a dozen or so, but Hall has narrowed the focus to three distinct soldiers, all of which served for the 2-16 infantry Battalion in Baghdad between 2007 and 2008 and rode the same doomed Humvee on the battleground.
There’s Sgt. Adam Schumann (Miles Teller), who, after three tours of duty, returns to a wife, Saskia (Haley Bennett), and two young tots; when arriving at the airport, he is approached by Amanda (Amy Schumer), the widow of a fellow soldier, who wants to know the exact gruesome details of how her husband died. Although we sense that Adam knows more than meets the eye, he tells this grieving widow he does not know and wasn’t there when he passed. Casting Schumer in this cameo might have backfired, but, however brief, it proves she has clear dramatic chops.
Memories of war haunt Adam at every turn, especially the sight of having seen a friend shot in the head by a sniper. Despite the headshot, Adam tried to save him by escorting him out of the battleground and down stairs while the wounded soldier coughs blood all over him. “I can still taste the blood,” he tells his wife later on in the movie. There is restraint in Teller’s performance, which comes immediately after his solid turn as a “hotshot” firefighter in Only the Brave. Around the time of the market crash of 2008, Adam and Saskia must rent their house and move to dingy part of town, which leaves the ex-soldier satisfied with their modest living conditions. “I still have my limbs; this is perfect,” he says.
There’s Tausolo “Solo” Aieti (Beulah Koale), a soldier that suffered the effects of a nasty brain injury and who quickly joins a gang upon return. The horrific battleground memory that echoes in his mind stems from when he failed to rescue a soldier from a burning Humvee, all due to confusion and overall carelessness. Despite all that, “Solo” still wants to be drafted for another tour of duty as the war zone is the closest to home he has. “War is a drug” has been depicted most notably in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, and the character of Solo would not be out of place in that film either. Lastly, there’s Will Waller (Joe Cole), whose return sees his fiancée leaving him without notice, including taking all the furniture and appliances from his home. Suffice it to say, he decides to confront her at work. Both “Solo” and Waller aren’t given as much screen time as Teller to fully flesh-out their characters, and that results in them being more like thinly-sketched stereotypes we’ve seen in lesser PTSD dramas.
In Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” a disillusioned soldier returned from Vietnam only to be confronted by isolation from the VA and the American government itself. Thank You for Your Service does not necessarily paint anybody in a bad light; its depiction of the VA and the people working there is seen as caring and hospitable. The problems, Hall and Finkel seem to imply, rest in the upper echelons of government that have failed in keeping up with the overwhelming cases. An emotionally effective scene brings that message home as Adam, waiting in line at one of the VA facilities, looks at the long, never-ending line that stretches far more than any line for help should stretch. Even worse, once it comes to be their turn, Adam and Solo set up an appointment with a war therapist which is effectively scheduled to take place anywhere between 6-9 months. To make matters worse, they’d have to travel to another state for recovery clinics. With that said, Hall barely scratches the surface when it comes to the problems facing these soldiers at the VA. In fact, Springsteen — who has a new track over the credits — went deeper and more thoroughly political in his four-minute song from 1984.
Hall’s lack of subtlety has its setbacks. Flashbacks detract from the film’s tempo and structure, and erase any kind of allure or mystery to the characters. This is a case where some things are better left unsaid, especially when you have the actors tell a world of emotions just by facial gestures and recurring ticks. The present-day sequences are much stronger and effective, even if there are times when they can be overtly symbolic and try to hammer home obvious messages. Take, for instance, the random, albeit clichéd sequence in which a soldier, back at home, tries desperately to rescue an injured pit bull that lost a fight, just like he would have if he were back in Baghdad fighting the insurgency. Cue the flashbacks and haunted memories.
Published in 2013 and a finalist for the National Book Circle Award, Finkel’s book was a groundbreaker for many, as it explored the appalling insufficiency of mental health care for veterans. The film version means well, but often only scratches the surface for a population of isolated and desperate Americans seeking help.
Thank You For Your Service is now in wide release.