Tommy Lee Jones is so ready for a fight he doubts there'll be much of one.His new crime drama, In the Valley of Elah, centers on the death of a soldier who returns home from the Iraq war, and the story aims to raise serious questions about how the United States is treating its men and women in uniform.
In the film, based on a true story, Jones plays a former military police investigator trying to find out why his son was brutally murdered. He comes to believe the war he once supported has misused and discarded its warriors, placing young heroes in a climate of fear and death that turns the ill-trained among them damaged and dangerous.
The movie's questions about Iraq are certain to provoke pro-war pundits and politicians, but mentioning that makes Jones even more defiant. Did he feel any fear about fallout from the movie?
"No, I didn't feel any fear about taking on this film at all," he says, pronouncing the word like it is ridiculous.
Jones, 60, has kept quiet about politics for seven years. The last — and maybe only — time he said anything was during the 2000 Democratic National Convention, when he made a speech supporting Al Gore, a Harvard friend. He says he'd vote for Gore again but adds tersely: "You don't know what my politics are."But by making a film that addresses the human cost of the war, Jones knows he has a target on his back. "Maybe I do," he says flatly. "I hope not. I would prefer that it be on the front."
Jones does not look worried. No one is going to Dixie Chick him.
"You have to be pretty narrow-minded to call (the movie) un-American or anti-American," Jones says, though he acknowledges there are many who aren't interested in questioning things.
"There sure are," Jones says with a rare chuckle (the prospect of conflict seems to be one of the few things that amuses him). "I've seen a few. I know where some are at! We got a bunch of 'em hemmed up down in San Saba County," the area in central Texas where Jones was born, raised and still lives.
The film opens Friday, and so far, pro-war talk shows and the right-wing blogs have been low-key regarding Elah, while some military bloggers, such as SgtStryker.com and PTSDcombat.blogspot.com, have praised it for highlighting issues that are front-and-center in military communities.A few war supporters have attacked the movie. Conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel labeled it "Bin Laden cinema" and called for a boycott of the actors. The conservative NewsMax.com categorized it as an "anti-war, anti-U.S. flick." Jones dismisses any backlash.
"The tactic of leading people into … a war that doesn't make any sense by telling them they are under attack, and if they raise any objection they're unpatriotic, is a very old tactic," he says, his cowboy drawl a low rumble. "And it doesn't intimidate me."
As another Texan said: Bring it on.
Based in fact
Elah is written and directed by Oscar-winning Crash filmmaker Paul Haggis, who also wrote the scripts that explored tough topics for Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers.
"These are the issues we discuss on the street and at the coffee shop," Haggis says.
In the Valley of Elah is based on a real 2003 case involving the stabbing death of Iraq war veteran Spc. Richard Davis after he returned from battle. Surrounding the case were allegations the victim witnessed war-time atrocities, and the convicted perpetrators suffered from extreme stress disorders that were downplayed by officials.
"Some people have already said, 'Well, you know this story (in Elah) is an isolated situation,' and I list 10 stories out there" about soldiers struggling to adjust or exploding with violence after returning uncared-for from Iraq, Haggis says.
He cites Pentagon statistics that say thousands are returning with psychological scarring and points out articles about soldiers being turned down for treatment because the government says they had mental problems before going to combat. "It's shameful how we're treating them," he says.
The title In the Valley of Elah refers to the biblical locale where David faced and killed Goliath. Jones' character is the one facing impossible odds as he tries to solve the murder of his son.
Lanny Davis, the father of the real-life soldier whose murder inspired the movie, says he's glad for the big-screen treatment.
"It's a strong movie and a good movie. And it's going to make a lot of people think," Davis says by phone from his home in Missouri. "They'll see how they're coming back so screwed up with diagnoses of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) higher than Vietnam," according to such groups as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "One thing causing it is they're going back for two or three or four tours. They're doing the darn best they can, but it's almost like a losing battle. I don't care what the Bush White House or Pentagon says."
Davis, too, has felt like David vs. Goliath — the little guy trying to show what is happening to soldiers. His outlet is a website named for his boy, RichardDavisForPeace.com. The movie gives another rock for his sling.Jones met with Davis a few times but says it wasn't to study him or glean any actorly insight. "I didn't want to meddle in his life or his mind or dig into his heart or any of that nonsense," Jones says.
"He's a nice man of good conscience, and I was glad to meet him, so I could indicate in some quiet way that we intended to be respectful as we dealt with events that were similar to those that befell his family."
Jones' character is a tribute to the stoic Red Stater, Haggis says: "Hank's politics are very different from mine, but he's the kind of guy I admire greatly. He's a strong, quiet man of few words, a man who knows right from wrong and doesn't suffer fools." In real life, Jones is not playing a man of few words anymore.
Straight talk
In an unusually blunt conversation, Jones is at once defiant, passionate and eloquent, although his legendary status as one of Hollywood's hardest interviews is deserved. He is not quick to open up.
Could In the Valley of Elah be set against the backdrop of any war? "In part, but not entirely," Jones says without elaboration. What is it, then, about Iraq that makes it specific to this story?
Jones takes a breath. And then, it finally happens. He makes a long, slow series of statements that few politicians of either major party would speak so directly.
"There are many questions raised by the movie, but they all boil down to one big question, and that's the big question in front of everybody in the country," he says, his eyes hard. "It's inescapable. It makes no sense to talk around it or avoid talking about it …
"That question is: To what extent are you engaged in a fraudulent war, you as an American citizen?"
The thought hangs there, daring for an attempted answer. Jones forges even further: "The other questions fall right behind it. To what extent was al-Qaeda embedded in Saddam Hussein's government before we invaded? To what extent did the Hussein government's program to develop weapons of mass destruction pose a threat to your freedoms? … How prepared was our army for that invasion? … Was there a good plan of what to do once we inevitably defeated them militarily? … Were our soldiers sufficiently equipped? …Was that a wise choice, to wage that war?"
His statements are punctuated with heavy pauses. He is tempting vilification by those still in lock-step with the White House, and he knows it. But he doesn't stop.
"And coming around full circle, to the original question: To what extent was it a fraudulent enterprise?" he says.
There is no blame, no vitriol against President Bush or other politicians. He speaks of respect for the troops, who were sent on orders, and says we all have to evaluate our personal responsibility for why.
"You have to ask yourself that. There are good reasons to ask yourself that. And if you can't ask yourself that, in the face of these children coming home in various states of disrepair — young women with one of her legs blown off, young men with their faces burned off — in the face of who-knows-how-many dead Iraqi schoolchildren and wives and old people … if you can't ask yourself those questions, you're not paying attention."
Jones doesn't offer his own answers. "In the political world, the only position I have is voter. I'm not a spokesman for anything," he says. "If you want to know about my politics, the only way to do that is to look at my work."
From his Oscar-winning role in The Fugitive to the military men he has played in Rolling Thunder and Rules of Engagement, and even the cowboys in Lonesome Dove and his own 2005 feature directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Jones has explored men who are both devoted to authority but wrestling with doubts.
He continues that in Elah as well as the upcoming Coen brothers film of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country For Old Men, playing a world-weary sheriff chasing a killer.A movie such as Elah doesn't pay anything close to a Men in Black salary, but shining a light on the unseen grief of military families is why Jones took the risk.
"I liked the movie for having a realistic outlook on matters of the heart," he says. Asked if patriotism is a matter of the heart, he narrows his eyes. "Yeah," he growls. "But often it would be better suited as a matter of the mind."
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