Thank You for Your Service

This film has a lot going for it. It has excellent editing; a top-notch job. It has three appealing young actors in the lead role. It is crisply directed and photographed. The storyline has bits and pieces of other great war classics such as The Best Years of Our Lives and Deer Hunter, as well as Coming Home. All these films have similar themes; the very difficult transition of young men coming home from a war. I identified with the main characters as a Vietnam veteran who returned from an unpopular war. There was no one at the airport to meet me and my buddy when we got into Fort Bragg. I was mustered out virtually by myself with $511 of mustering out pay. I immediately took the train to Newark, which arrived by 2am in the morning. While I napped on the train after two days of no sleep, I had my wallet lifted. I arrived home in Jersey City without a dime in my pocket. My girlfriend had left me for some other guy while I was overseas, and I wound up spending my first night of freedom after the army in a Catholic Charities center. The first thing I noticed after a week or so was that the excitement of living in Vietnam was completely missing in the US. And this, in my opinion, is pretty much what this film is about. It is like a gambler that is only alive when they are at the tables. It is, of course, a sickness that you must eventually overcome, but it is not easy. The film pulls no punches and delivers the emotional impact that it intends to send. The VA is correctly portrayed as almost totally inept. So, is the price of cheap oil worth the loss of limbs and lives of our young men and women? It would appear so. Very sad state of affairs. Good film.