Stop-Loss

Over Spring Break, I was very excited to get to see a movie I'd been waiting for, "Stop-Loss".
I initially wanted to see it, yes, because Channing Tatum is in it, along with Ryan Phillippe, and I find both of these actors rather easy on the eyes.

The basic storyline is this: Brandon (Phillippe), is a soldier who just came home from his tour of Iraq, where he witnessed his good friends injured brutally and killed. He's very glad to be back and start his life over. Steve, (Tatum) is his best friend since childhood, who was by his side every step of the way in Iraq. There are also two others that are good friends and fellow soldiers, Tommy (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Isaac (played by Rob Brown). These four soldiers return home to Texas, and all of them are eager to see their families and loved ones.

The soldiers did get out of Iraq with their lives, but that did not stop them from being affected. They get drunk and behave in unacceptable ways, including Steve hitting his girlfriend and thinking he was back in Iraq; he digs a grave in his front yard. Tommy is the most deeply affected, however, and he blames himself for a lot of what went wrong the day many of their friends were killed. He drinks too much and his wife kicks him out. The four decide to go out to a ranch that Brandon's family has and spend a few days taking it easy, away from reality.

The next day or so, the four have to go turn in all their effects and take care of their last business before being officially done with their tour. However, Brandon is informed that he's shipping out at the end of the month. After arguing back that he's done with his fighting, he's told he was stop-lossed, and that the president can override his contract. He even goes to his Lieutenant Colonel to get it reversed, but he says the same thing; he has to do what he's ordered.

Brandon reacts badly, beating up two soldiers escorting him out and taking Steve's car to run away. He ends up driving with Steve's girlfriend, Michelle (with no romantic undertones- she has a car and he needs one) to Washington DC to talk to a senator who told him to tell him if he had any trouble. Steve catches up with them to bring Brandon home, but Brandon refuses. When Michelle finds out that Steve signed up to be a sniper, she breaks it off with him, saying she waited five years for him and she can tell he'll never be done. Steve leaves completely unsettled. His best friend is a fugitive and his girlfriend, the girl he loves more than anyone, just broke up with him.

Along the way, Brandon realizes that no senator is going to help a runaway soldier who is defying an order from the president. He then looks at his other option: fleeing the country. He gets in touch with a man who can help him run away to Canada, but finds out that Tommy has killed himself, so rushes back home to go to the funeral after everyone else but Steve is gone.

Steve sees Brandon, and they talk about what's been happening. Steve has a crying moment, and they have a fist fighting moment, and they do not part well. Brandon goes to the ranch and says goodbye to everyone- he's decided to flee to Mexico.

Standing on the border, Brandon comments how when he crosses the border, all his friends and family and past will be gone, but he'll still remember what he did and there's nothing that can change that. (You find out in a flashback that when Brandon was saving Steve's life he killed a man with a weapon who was holding his very young son in his arms).

The movie ends with Brandon and Steve sitting side by side on a bus to ship out once again. Brandon's mom is terror-stricken and his dad is stone-faced. Michelle stands in the crowd, though you're not sure if it's for Steve, or Brandon, who she's known since childhood as well.

It's not necessarily a happy story, but it is a very moving one.