SAN ANTONIO – A new movie being released this weekend ahead of Veterans Day demonstrates the difficulty soldiers often have after returning home from war.
Universal Pictures' "Thank You for Your Service" is a film based on the real-life story of US soldiers who return home from Iraq with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have to adjust back to civilian life.
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The story follows Army Staff Sgt. Adam Schumann who, along with two other soldiers, come home after witnessing the shooting of a fellow soldier named Emory (played by Scott Haze) during a patrol. It is Schumann who during the confusion also drops him while trying to carry him down a flight of stairs.
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The story mainly follows Schumann -- who is played aptly by actor Miles Teller -- as he comes home to his wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) and his two children changed and affected by the events overseas.
The other soldiers also find that their attempts fair no better. Will Waller (played by Joe Cole), finds out his fiancee has left him with an empty apartment and Tausolo Aieti tries to deal with a brain injury sustained during the war -- and in his attempt to find relief gets in with the wrong people. To add to his stress, he finds out his wife is pregnant and about to give birth.
The film capably sheds light on the PTSD that many veterans deal with on a daily basis. There are many emotional scenes in the film -- a scene of dog-fighting, a scene of domestic violence, and even one of suicide -- but some of the best and most gripping are the more subtle ones, such as when Schumann accidently drops his infant son while having a nightmare in his sleep, or when Schumann goes hunting with Aieti only to become distraught in the woods.
A movie of this nature very easily could belittle the military and surprisingly, it toes the line well without doing so. The Veteran Affairs office, also an easy target, is shown during the movie having difficulties keeping up with the volume of cases before them, but it also shows how the sensitive and caring people who do work there do all that they can to help make veterans lives better.
"Thank You for Your Service" is a quality, albeit emotionally draining movie. Audiences however may find it a tad long, as it pounds a viewer with non-stop negativity over and over again. The movie is definitely worth viewing as one comes away with even more of an appreciation of our armed forces.
The film is directed by Jason Hall, writer of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” and is based off of a non-fiction book of the same name by David Finkel.
Early projections indicate that the film may make around $12 million over the weekend.
Universal Pictures and AMC Theaters on Oct. 26 offered more than 10,000 free movie tickets for US veterans and active-duty service members who wanted to see a preview.
The film presently has a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It is 1 hour and 49 minutes long and is rated R. It opens nationwide on Oct. 27.
You can view the trailer below or by clicking here.
