STOP-LOSS

War drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ryan Phillippe: squad leader Staff Sergeant Brandon King
Channing Tatum: his best friend Sergeant Steve Shriver
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Pfc. Tommy Burgess
Abbie Cornish: Steve's girlfriend Michelle
Timothy Olyphant: Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Boot Miller

REVIEW
All anti-war movies invariably show the impact military confrontation has on the individuals involved including injury, death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the like. This film deals with one other thing, some of the policies of the United States armed forces that are not that well publicised.

The acting is generally quite good; the pacing fine but some editing is in order as it is a tad too long. Although it is expected some brawling will take place the fight following the service somehow does not ring true.

CLASSIFICATION
for graphic violence and pervasive strong language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 From personal experience (as victim not the “perp”) when an automobile side window is smashed it shatters completely rather than just create a perfectly round hole.
 When King gets in the car, although he didn’t touch it, the window has got its act together and is now almost completely gone.
 King gets a pretty bad gash above his left eye with the edges of the cut rough and irregular. Rather than get stitches he applies a butterfly bandage. As an experienced soldier he would know that these are used for a small cut that tends to gape a bit. The correct bandage would be Steri-Strips wound closure tapes.
 In any event the two bandages have a mind of their own. Sometimes the gap between them at the bottom is no more than a sixteenth of an inch, other times they are almost half an inch apart.
 And the wound itself moves about. It arches sometimes to the edge of his eyebrow but more often it’s a good half-inch above.