Touches You

To me, this movie is perfection.

Let's be realistic.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A companion piece to The Last Detail (written by Daniel Ponsican who co-scripted here) & directed by Richard Linklater details a trio of Vietnam vets escorting one of their sons home for burial who lost his life fighting in Iraq. Much like Detail, we get a sense of the lives lived since their wartime duty & how for some, things have moved forward while others are stuck in a perpetual cycle of pain & regret. A welcome vehicle for the 3 leads (Steve Carrell, Bryan Cranston & Laurence Fishburne) who perform w/the expertise & nuance you would expect. Another notch in Linklater's belt who at this point in his career seems unable to do no wrong.

First the Lt. Colonel should have been in his dress blue uniform, if his men were in their dress blue uniforms, at the Dover hanger scene.Second when Staff Sargent Sal starts having a discussion, where he wants to put down the Lt. Colonel, any enlisted man knows these officers like to be called Colonel and not Lieutenant Colonel, so Sal should have addressed him as Lieutenant Colonel, his correct rank.In the military there are 3 places where officers are addressed by a higher rank, than they actually have. First no one calls a 2nd Lieutenant 2nd Lieutenant or in the Navy no one calls a Lieutenant Junior Grade Lieutenant Junior Grade, these ranks get upgraded to Lieutenant. Second same courtesy as 05's go from Lieutenant Commander or Lieutenant Colonel to Commander and Colonel.Third when an officer gets his her First Star (Flag grade) they do not want to be called Sir or Mam anymore, they want to hear Yes Admiral or Yes General. And no one in their right mind is going to address a 1 star Admiral by using their official title. "Admiral lower Half, Chief Robinson reporting for duty." Be My Little General Brigadier Major Lieutenant General.Navy Rear Admiral Lower half (1 star) Rear Admiral Upper Half (2 stars) Vice Admiral (3 stars) Admiral (4 stars).When Sal went to rent the truck, how come he didn't give the reverend the keys to his car, or if the reverend could not drive because of his bum leg, he should have taken Doc with him so that after renting the truck, they both could drive back to the Air base and the Rev could have ridden in the truck with Sal or the car with Doc and not try to take a bus home. Sal just leaves his car in Delaware?And last but not least, when the Marine was sitting around in the train's cargo compartment, and the 3 older vets go back to talk with him, you see the young Marine sitting on Doc's son's boxed casket, never, never, never would have happened.

This film felt far more like a play or TV movie than anything else - lots of dialogue, minimal soundtrack, and a few too many convenient plot leaps. Also, it tries a *little* too hard at almost every moment. But when Linklater writes your play, you can get Carrell, Cranston, and Fishburne to star. For all the flaws here, they act their asses off. And while the story is hardly perfect, we could use more like it too (even if they could be better executed). The story stays true to its characters, and works best at its quietest moments.

Dramatic, poignant, serious, and yet delightfully light hearted. It's about young men at war and the old men returned from war and their memories and the remarkably incommon issues they have handled and moved forward each in their own way. As a retired military combat veteran myself I loved it. The acting is superb by all the players and the story is just memorable and touching in a good way. Needless to say again I loved it for so many reasons. Also, in my view it's an exceptional story of how young men change and adapt to life circumstances whether they are combat veteran or not.