Home of the Brave (2006)

There is 2 reasons why i got this movie, no actually there is 3... The first one was it had Jessica Biel, which i find gorgeous and likable in much the stuff she is in. Second was it was very cheap, only 3$ at the video store for a buy. Third one is the most important, i was really expecting a war theme movie about a group of soldier being ambushed in Irak and having to survive... Thats actually the premise of the movie if you read the back of the box art....??? But the movie is something completely different. There is an ambush yeah, and they do have to survive, but for 5-10 minutes at best... Thats one of the rare action sequence of the movie and all the rest is a drama about how they have to readjust to there previous lives...Now i will give that to the writers and people involved, the story is not bad, and for the kind of person that do enjoy these types of movies, I'm sure this one is a good one. Thats why I'm giving it a 6, being honest. But me... i was expecting an action movie, by everything the movie had to offer from cover art, to the synopsis, and the actor playing in it. Yeah the fact of having 50 cent in a drama is very strange for me. Samuel L and Jessica Biel also have there share of action movies...In any case, i was PERSONALLY bored for the best part of the movie, despite a good try by the actors and a script that i mentioned, is pretty good for its category. Thanksfully the movie was not too long, unlike The Hurt Locker where i checked like 5 times when it was gonna end... so well. But nop, these are not my type of movies...

I picked this one out of the bargain bin and had no great expectations at all, thinking the only good thing about it may be the price. I was pleasantly surprised. This certainly isn't great by any stretch, but it's not that bad. For the military aficionado it might be disappointing and I'd certainly suspect, as a lot of people have mentioned, that the military adviser on this film (if there was one) didn't really have any leverage in terms of being able to bring any credibility to the Iraq scenes.How they let themselves get set up for the ambush in the first place and both why they pursued the insurgents so far and why they went right through the middle of the cemetery not knowing where the bad guys were amongst the headstones spoke volumes about this aspect of the movie very early in the piece. That's not what the film was about however and I don't think the director was either trying to make an accurate military actioner or make any statement about the rights or wrongs of the conflict in Iraq at all.What it was about and what it acknowledged was that being at the coal face of such a situation and what is experienced has a profound impact on the person involved, regardless of whether the individual returns physically unscathed or not. In this regard I thought this film did pretty well. I suspect that it was likely pretty accurate in its portrayal of how things are different for veterans when they return, regardless of the particular conflict, how they struggle to relate to people who can never understand their experiences and how those at home struggle to relate to them.I was previously no fan at all of Jessica Biel as an actress and assumed both her and 50 Cent had been cast purely to get bums on seats. While 50 Cent didn't disappoint in that regard, he was passable, though a bit too stereotyped as an angry black guy with a big mouth. Alba along with Samuel L. Jackson both turned in what I thought were fairly powerful and credible performances. There were some rather powerful and emotional scenes regardless of any cliché and without any first hand knowledge, I found them to be pretty credible as returned war vets struggling to fit in and relate to those around them.That said, some of the situations seemed a little bit forced and the resolutions for each of the four main characters followed were disappointing, all except 50 Cent's character being shown on the road to redemption and/or recovery. I don't believe for a second that such problems could begin to be ironed out so quickly and the 'happy' endings of the film for me undermined much of what I thought was some credibility established earlier.I thought it rather apolitical, but a huge number of 'critics' I would suggest possibly dismiss it on the basis of not being far enough to their respective viewpoints, regardless of which side of the fence they're on. This is no masterpiece but I would suggest worth a look for a couple of very good performances, certainly better then it's IMDb rating would suggest.

Are you kidding? How can you NOT give this movie less than a 9? I think that this movies deals with a lot of truths to the aftermath of war. If you were expecting to see a "war movie" sorry to disappoint, this deals with the most important part of war: the soldiers who fight in it every day and what happens when they come home. As a Iraqi veteran, I could relate to what these people went through, all 4 of them. The guy who can't get the images out of head of the people he couldn't save, and tries to drown it out with alcohol; The guy who just wants to go back to normal life after killing an innocent person in a war where all the enemies look like innocent people; the guy who loses his best friend but still wants to go back and finish what he started in a country where not everyone wants us there; and the single mother who comes home to a son she doesn't know anymore and back to a life which has obviously continued on without her. It's hard on a soldier coming back after something like that and I think that any family who has a soldier should see this movie. As far as the acting, I think it was right on. The music was OK and the dialog was pretty true to that kind of situation. There are a lot of movies out there that try to depict the Iraqi war, but this one is right on. SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!

As I read the reviews, I can't help but think that the people who trash this movie are ardent Bush/War fans, for their criticism seems specious. It's far from being the best movie I've ever seen, or the best acting. What it is is a collection of accounts of how peoples' lives have been shattered by a political excursion that had no justification... and still doesn't. It shows the wasted lives and even defends the cause, which I thought made it more than impartial. Jackson's character defends the invasion as does Presley's. But all are overwhelmed by it and the tragic consequences of the conflict. The plot makes sense. The acting is fair, not terrible. The subject matter is handled evenly, presenting neither a pro war or con position, which is very hard to do. But for those who think that we must rally around the flag at all costs, this film is clearly an anathema. This invasion was started with lies and many people believe that we need to continue to lie to "Support the Troops." The best way to support the troops is to tell the truth, as this movie tries to do and to finally bring them home... not in coffins.