Taking Chance

I actually remember reading this moving 2004 post at Blackfive:

Taking Chance

The following is Marine Lieutenant Colonel Strobl's account of escorting the remains of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. It's a long and beautifully written and it deserves to be read in it's entirety. It's about Valor, Honor and Respect....

On Feb 21, HBO will premier its new film "Taking Chance", starring Kevin Bacon as LtCol Strobl.



It is also an "Official Selection" for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Given this, and the record of Hollywood films on portraying anything to do with the war in Iraq, I was at first wary. However, a viewing of the trailer for this film would seem to show a production that is true to the intent of Strobl's original writing. In the words of the Sundance Festival programmer, "...its potency comes not from melodramatic or political statements but simply from its reality and execution." Let us hope this is true.

Echoing Blackfive's words from 2004, the USMC and the Army, who have taken the brunt of the pain over the last several years, need this film to be all about "Valor, Honor and Respect", and not the usual melodramatic political staement that Sundance is used to.