Semper fidelis

Taking Chance

(2008)

An HBO film starring Kevin Bacon that I'd never heard of until a good friend recommended it, and while I can't say I actually liked it, I'm glad to have seen it, if for no other reason than to observe the obsessive care and honor the Marine Corps (and presumably all branches of U.S. military service) extends to its fallen heroes.

The story itself is meant to be a mystery, though it's fairly clear long before the hour-in reveal that the reason Lt. Col. Mike Strobl--Bacon, strung tighter than a Steinway--has volunteered to escort the body of a PFC killed in Iraq to his family in Montana is guilt over having avoided a return to the Gulf after his service in the first Bush's war.

The film works better as a tribute to the young man who inspired the story, and by extension, to all who serve. And a few times, it is genuinely moving. But it's world is populated exclusively by good people, saintly people, even, people who, even if they have reservations about the war itself, show unabated respect to the people who fight it. The closest we see to an asshole is an officious TSA agent unimpressed by Col. Strobl's refusal to denigrate his uniform jacket by putting it on the scanner belt at airport security. But the TSA guy, after all, is simply doing his job; he might be a little more sensitive, but his behavior hardly scarcely approaches the asshole threshold, and sorry, but the America I know and love has assholes in it. Whatever the aims of the film, they would be better served by couching the argument in a recognizable universe.