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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features (click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)

Bacon Nails Taking Chance
As a prolific DVD renter, I sometimes approach desperation in my search for something new on the shelves of my small neighborhood video store. So, here’s a DVD case in the new releases with a picture of Kevin Bacon dressed in some kind of uniform under the title “Taking Chance”. What an opportunity! A movie I know absolutely nothing about other than Kevin Bacon’s a great, still-underrated actor. I LOVE knowing next-to-nothing about a movie. I love the process of discovery. To state the obvious, I took a chance.

I discovered a masterpiece – the story of a desk-bound Marine officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Strobl (portrayed by Bacon), who volunteers to escort the corpse of a KIA (killed-in-action) Marine, Chance Phelps, who died in Iraq, to Phelps’ home. (Escorts are usually non-commissioned Marines.) ‘Not much of a story’ some may say. What’s great about this movie – in addition to the simple fact that everyone did an excellent job in front of and behind the camera – is Kevin Bacon’s performance. Throughout the military ritual of his journey Bacon’s character is confronting war, mortality, loss, and questions about the meaning of his own life – an intentional far cry from his desk job. However, there is virtually no talk of these weighty, painful matters. Instead Strobl simply encounters a number of people and rituals on his odyssey to Chance’s home. The dialog is minimal, simple – that is, very realistic. Yet everything is happening, changing, emoting through Bacon’s face – especially his eyes. This story lives behind Kevin Bacon’s eyes.

One of the first questions one may ask about “Taking Chance” is ‘what is the message?’ or, more specifically, ‘what is this film’s stand on the Iraq war, or war in general?’ The film, which is based upon the real lives of the characters portrayed, is simply too rich and too focused to make an explicit statement about war. Consequently, each of us projects our own ideas about war onto the canvas of this story. More importantly, though, we follow Lieutenant Colonel Mike Strobl as he confronts life and death. And at the end, when Strobl returns to his loving family, although there appears to be nothing out of the norm, we sense his change; we feel the impact of his odyssey. This is story-telling at its best.

Movies about our Iraq war do not do well at the box office. Make of that what you will. Driven by some collective ethical force or national conscience, Hollywood keeps making them. Thanks to HBO that *this* movie, one which transcends its setting, got produced and distributed.

Aug 12, 2009 by D. Schwartz