Tag: Jason Hall

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE – Review

(L to R) Adam Schumann (MILES TELLER), Solo Aeiti (BEULAH KOALE) and Will Waller (JOE COLE) in DreamWorks Pictures’ “Thank You for Your Service.” The drama follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield. Photo Credit: Francois Duhamel/DreamWorks Pictures. COPYRIGHT © Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC

Not all wounds suffered in war are obvious. The fog of war is replaced by the fog of the VA for a band of soldiers returned from Iraq in THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. While several films have depicted the experience of soldiers in the Iraq War, few have told the story of their experience after they return home. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE focuses on gritty reality rather than comforting patriotism as it follows a handful of Iraq War veterans coping with a military that seems far less responsive as they move from soldiers to veterans, and as they struggle to adjust to a civilian life where those who lost a leg are recognized but less so those suffering the wounds of PTSD.

Other Iraq war films have focused on the experience of war but THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE spotlights the obligation of the military to soldiers as they transition to veterans. Miles Teller delivers a sterling performance as Adam Schumann, the de facto leader of this close-knit group. Among this band of brothers are Tausolo Aieti (Beulah Koale), Billy Waller (Joe Cole) And Michael Emory (Scott Haze). On the flight home, they jokes and tease, talk about their plans for the future, and seem eager to get back to civilian life. But part of it is a brave front to cover up troubling problems or even pure fantasy. As they shed their uniforms, a new battle begins.

A new reality greets them as soon as they land, when Schumann’s wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) meets him in the company of her best friend Amanda (Amy Schumer, in a rare dramatic role), the widow of one of the group who didn’t make it home. Amanda is desperate for details on her husband’s death, something Teller’s Schumann is equally desperate to avoid talking about.

The cast also includes Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, Omar J. Dorsey, and Jayson Warner Smith. Cinematography by Roman Vasyanov adds a surprising beauty to ordinary settings, and helps draw out the inner conflicts the men are struggling with.

Writer/director Jason Hall takes a direct, head-on approach to the challenges these vets face, which makes it clear his sympathies lie with these soldiers rather than the system or superior offices. Based on journalist David Finkel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, this film has a far different tone from his last film, AMERICAN SNIPER. Those who disliked that film may find this one more involving and insightful, while those who embraced the earlier film may not care for its hard-hitting stance on the treatment of veterans by the military.

 

One of the first parts of that battle is just the transition from active military to veteran. The military is glad to have them re-enlist and walk them through every step but when it comes to even getting the card to get the veterans benefits they are owed, the men find themselves waiting in huge room of fellow soldiers, facing a bewildering system of forms and with no one to guide them. It is a lot to ask of someone suffering from PTSD and accustomed to military efficiency. On the streets, their uniforms draw thank-yous but no practical help. Once out of uniform and with no obvious wounds, they are expected to fit in with the unforgiving pace of a society that has moved forward without them.

The sympathies of this moving drama are with the returning soldiers rather than military or government they served. When striking scene has Teller’s Schumann in the office of commanding officer that is supposed to be helping him get treatment for his PTSD. While the officer seems like his is going to help, his focus keeps drifting to the online shopping he is doing while trying to help Schumann. It is a perfect illustration of a flawed system, where even personal attention is some how impersonal. The search for help is vital to Schumann but just routine to the officer, no matter how well-meaning he may be.

As the drama builds, all these soldiers go on their own rocky journeys, often trying to tough through on their own. Schumann continues to play a protective role towards the others as he did in Iraq but finally he has to confront his own demons.

Much of why this film works emotionally as well as it does (and it does work better than many recent war films) is due to Miles Teller’s strong, layered performance. Teller has shown himself to be an acting power house in films such as WHIPLASH and THE SPECTACULAR NOW, and here he shows his range in a role of both quiet strength and complex human feelings. The ensemble cast blend well, each adding their own distinct thread, but Teller’s performance is the linchpin.

Although the story is set during the Iraq War, the story is universal one for returning soldiers in modern America. While every veteran’s experience is unique, the film points to some significant weaknesses in the country’s treatment of those who served in war. The U.S. military is very good at war but THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE makes clear it needs some improvement in how those who served are returned to civilian life.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

WAMG Interview: Jason Hall – Writer and Director of THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE


Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jason Hall adapted David Finkel’s book Thank You For Your Service, about the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder syndrome that is becoming a major issue for vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The film version of THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE starring Haley Bennett, Miles Teller and newcomer Beulah Koale, opens this Friday, with Hall behind the camera as director as well as screenwriter. Hall’s next project is The Virginian, about the young George Washington. Hall’s ambition is to show Washington as a rough man driven by extreme ambition in a violent frontier, and the film will show how one man’s battle to conquer himself enabled him to liberate a nation.


Jason Hall was in town recently promoting THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE and answered some questions for We Are Movie Geeks.

We Are Movie Geeks: Do you think that soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan or damaged mentally in a distinct way as opposed to soldiers who came back from other wars?

Jason Hall: The majority of the soldiers come home and they are not damaged. To look at our soldiers, you have to say that these guys are assets, but one out of four of these guys come home and they have some sort of PTS. The distinct difference between this and, say Vietnam, are the blast waves. Once you start dealing with the IED’s and the way that that affects the brain and of the trauma, is closer to World War One with all the shelling in the concussive nature of that. It’s not the explosion that does the most damage. It’s the blast wave, a wave that comes at you at the speed of sound that’s like a brick wall.

WAMG: I recently saw a film called LAST FLAG FLYING about three Vietnam vets reflecting on their service decades later and some of their regrets about being drug addicts during the war and catching STDs in whore houses in Vietnam.


JH: Yes I think the differences between what these guys experienced and with the guys in Nam experienced could fill a book.  There was a lot of boredom. You see things in the movies that are very exciting and visceral but there was a lot of downtime for these guys. A lot of times they would drive around and they wouldn’t even see the enemy, or see who’s shooting at them, or see who’s trying to blow them up. It seemed to them like they were fighting an invisible enemy. Or they were disguised or dressed like civilians. It’s a real challenge to know who you’re fighting.

WAMG: As a director, what did you learn from working with Clint Eastwood?

JH: Clint is such a personality. I guess I was the first writer that he let stick around. I was around for the entire shooting of the film. He was so generous with me. He would ask my opinion about things, which is not a common character trait for him. Such a charming guy and what I learned from him to just keep it loose and being flexible. If he has any instinctive idea, he would just take change the tone of a scene or turn it on its head and goes in a different direction.  What I learned from Clint too is truth. Clint is always trying to put truth up on the screen. That’s his whole goal. That differs from Spielberg in the sense that Spielberg is about trying to make the audience feel from a scene while Clint wants to give us the truth about a scene.  Two different ways and very interesting for me to have experienced both schools of thought.

WAMG: Who would you love to see star in your George Washington project?

JH: Whoever I can get that mostly resembles that young George Washington. But he was 22 at the time of the story that I’m telling so that could be a challenge

All U.S. Veterans and Active-Duty Servicemembers – See THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE Free On October 26 at 7PM Screening

(L to R) Adam Schumann (MILES TELLER), Solo Aeiti (BEULAH KOALE) and Will Waller (JOE COLE) in DreamWorks Pictures’ “Thank You for Your Service.”

Universal Pictures and AMC Theatres have announced that, on October 26, up to 10,000 free tickets will be presented to U.S. veterans and active-duty servicemembers for DreamWorks Pictures’ Thank You for Your Service — at more than 400 AMC locations nationwide. Each of the first 25 servicemembers (per location) with valid, government-issued ID who request a ticket will be given one free admission to the 7:00 p.m. preview screening.

From the writer of American Sniper and the studio that brought you Lone Survivor, the film follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.  Thank You for Your Service arrives in theatres nationwide on October 27.

The promotion will be available at all AMC Theatres playing Thank You for Your Service.  Free tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and may only be picked up at the AMC box office on October 26.  Each guest must present a valid government-issued military ID to receive their ticket, with a limit of one free ticket for each military ID presented, while supplies last.  This offer is valid for the 7:00 p.m. showing of the film on October 26, only.

“Once we began a discussion with AMC about how we could embody the spirit and message of Thank You for Your Service, they stepped up to the plate in a major way,” said Jim Orr, Executive Vice President, General Sales Manager, Universal Pictures.  “We are honored that up to 10,000 U.S. veterans and active servicemembers will be among the first to experience this riveting film from our partners at DreamWorks.”

“Thank You for Your Service reminds us all of the tremendous sacrifice made by America’s servicemembers and their families,” said Elizabeth Frank, EVP Worldwide Programming and Chief Content Officer, AMC Theatres.  “AMC is pleased to partner with Universal Pictures to offer veterans and active servicemembers the opportunity to attend this preview screening at no charge.”

For more information and a list of AMC Theatres participating, visit http://www.tyfysmilitaryoffer.com/

DreamWorks Pictures’ Thank You for Your Service follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.

Starring an ensemble cast led by Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Joe Cole, Amy Schumer, Beulah Koale, Scott Haze, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, Omar J. Dorsey and Jayson Warner Smith, the drama is based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author David Finkel.

Read more on the story HERE.

Jason Hall, who wrote the screenplay of American Sniper, makes his directorial debut with Thank You for Your Service and also serves as its screenwriter.  Jon Kilik (The Hunger Games series, Babel) produces the film.

Visit the official site: www.thankyouforyourservicemovie.com

Watch Miles Teller In THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE Trailer

DreamWorks Pictures has released a first look at their upcoming film THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

The drama follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.

Starring an ensemble cast led by Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Joe Cole, Amy Schumer, Beulah Koale, Scott Haze, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, Omar J. Dorsey and Jayson Warner Smith, the drama is based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author David Finkel.

Jason Hall, who wrote the screenplay of AMERICAN SNIPER, makes his directorial debut with THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE and also serves as its screenwriter.

Book synopsis:

No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous “surge,” a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed them all forever.

In Thank You for Your Service, Finkel follows many of those same men as they return home and struggle to reintegrate―both into their family lives and into American society at large. He is with them in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like―not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done. Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?

Jon Kilik (The Hunger Games series, Babel) produces the film, while Ann Ruark (Biutiful) executive produces.

Universal Pictures will release the film October 27.

www.ThankYouForYourServiceMovie.com

Amy Schumer And Miles Teller To Star In DreamWorks Pictures THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

Trainwreck by Judd Apatow - Piazza Grande

Principal photography has begun on the DreamWorks Pictures film adaptation of David Finkel’s book, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, it was announced today by the studio. The film stars Miles Teller (Whiplash), Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Amy Schumer (Trainwreck), Beulah Koale (The Last Saint), Scott Haze (Child of God), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Brad Beyer (42), Omar Dorsey (Selma) and Jayson Warner Smith (The Birth of a Nation).

Oscar nominated screenwriter Jason Hall (American Sniper) makes his directorial debut on THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. Hall also wrote the screenplay for the story that follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield. Jon Kilik (Foxcatcher, Babel) is producing with Ann Ruark (Love & Mercy) serving as executive producer. Filming is taking place in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Thank You For Your Service” was published in 2013 by Sarah Crichton Books and was a follow-up to Finkel’s previous book, “The Good Soldiers,” where he embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion on the front lines of Baghdad. “Thank You For Your Service” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and named as one of Ten Favorite Books of 2013 by Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times.

Universal Pictures is distributing the film in the U.S. and select international territories while Mister Smith Entertainment is overseeing distribution in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. DreamWorks’ partners, Reliance, will distribute the film in India and Entertainment One (eOne) in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia and New Zealand.