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Heads up on “Taking Chance”: an HBO movie not to be missed [Updated]
Posted by civil truth on February 21st, 2009
Update: Feb 22, 2009 2:09am
For those who don’t have TVs or who don’t subscribe to HBO, the DVD release date is May 19th.
This remarkable documentary of a fallen Marine’s final journey home starts its run on HBO this evening, Feb 21, 2009. (H/T) Here’s the trailer:
From the HBO synopsis:
In April 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC, came across the name of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, a young Marine who had been killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran with 17 years of military service, requested that he be assigned for military escort duty to accompany Chance’s remains to his family in Dubois, Wyo.
Witnessing the spontaneous outpouring of support and respect for the fallen Marine – from the groundskeepers he passed along the road to the cargo handlers at the airport – Strobl was moved to capture the experience in his personal journal. His first-person account, which began as an official trip report, gives an insight into the military’s policy of providing a uniformed escort for all casualties. The story became an Internet phenomenon when it was widely circulated throughout the military community…
‘Taking Chance’ chronicles one of the silent, virtually unseen journeys that takes place every day across the country, bearing witness to the fallen and all those who, literally and figuratively, carry them home.
The WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote an excellent review, excepted below but worth reading in its entirety:
It was impossible to imagine, beforehand, all the ways a film like “Taking Chance”…could work its power. There are no conflicts, no warring sides, no mysteries of character — the usual stuff of drama. The story’s outcome is clear from the beginning. Yet it’s no less clear that “Taking Chance” is not only high drama, but a kind that is, in the most literal way, breathtaking — watching parts of it can make breathing an effort, and those parts come at every turn. It’s no less obvious that this film, about a Marine killed in combat, could have gone wrong in all sorts of ways and did so in none of them. There is in this work, at once so crushing and exhilarating, not a false note.
The credit for that belongs to Lt. Col. Michael Stroble, U.S. Marine Corps, on whose journal the film is based; to producer, writer and director Ross Katz; and, not least, to Kevin Bacon, whose portrayal of the devoted Col. Stroble is a masterwork — flawless in its fierce economy, eloquent in its testimony, most of it wordless, to everything that is going on.
And that is a great deal…
It’s a long trip. Everywhere along the way, he encounters Americans of every age, class and occupation who are transfixed once they understand they are in the presence of a military escort officer taking a serviceman home. That presence is enough. They don’t need the sight of the flag-draped casket. All that they feel they show this uniformed officer, the stand-in for their dead fellow American, for his family, for the funeral service they can’t get to — and the recipient of their grief and regard.
Here’s a link to Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl’s written account, posted at Blackfive
Since I don’t have TV, I hope to be able to view a DVD of this once they make it available. Which I hope will be very soon.
Update: Feb 21, 2009 6:10pm
For those who may be concerned about the film because of the actors and because the film was produced for HBO, here is a thread from the RedState post (where I first read about this film) that addresses those concerns:
Vegas_Rick:
I wasn’t going to watch this film because Kevin Bacon is a progressive, far-left, anti-war liberal. I don’t feel he deserves to play this role. I don’t think people like Bacon understand the honor and devotion to duty that that LTC felt.
But I’m going to watch it. After reading the review and watching the trailer, I have hope that maybe Bacon, and by extension, other liberals will have learned something about America and American heros.
God bless PFC Phelps and all those like him.
mbecker908:
Vegas Rick, I just added a link to Blackfive where they published the original journal of LtCol Strobl in 2004. From everything I’ve heard – including from military families who’ve seen the movie – it’s true to both the facts and spirit of the journal.
Read the journal. Have a kleenex handy
August 18th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I am heartbroken, I never stop crying. This is a powerful story and I am one of many American that did not know what a “Escort Duty” offical was. This was one impact that I will never forget, a lesson about our Military protocol regarding the handling of fallen soldiers remains.
I for one want everyone to know and understand how many American and non felt or feeling about a soldier who dies in action.
I will be telling this great story, a story (To my follow Toastmaster group)that is really one of a million. This week August 20th I will be revealing this heartbreaking events of one fallen soldier’s journey home to be buried. Everyone American and NON should all about how our Military dead are handle. Many of our service men and women are not always American Citizens many are foreigner who make Ameica their home. This story is for them, also, for every single service person who died to protect America. (Because this is protection) On 9/11 America was attack, many cried for “BLOOD”. All too soon many forgot the reason why we are in Iraq. These are American who forget their fallen citizen who die in the high-jack airliners and the Twin Towers. I feel sorry for those who forgot, for I know the remaining families of those who died on 9/11 have not forgotten, they will never forget as long as they live, they will miss their love one forever.
Please stand behind our Military service men and women, they are doing their duty to protect you and your love ones. Many will die and many will come home will event in their head and may never be able to forget what the challenges of combat war was like. The ones that died on 9/11 died because of ugly monsters and these monster should be STOP before they can attack American soil again.
If I had it my way I’ll send an atom bomb, just like we did once before, I give credit to Harry Turman for the courage for deploying it.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Frankly, I don’t care if an actor is left wing/right wing or centrist. The only thing I care about in terms of film is whether or not an actor can pull off playing a real character with adequate humanity.
Kevin Bacon was spectacular in this movie. The quiet dignity he displayed throughout his journey, I think, reflects well on those whose honor it is to carry out this final duty.
I frankly don’t know if any conservative actors could have honestly done better (Gary Sinise doesn’t seem right somehow).