Thank You for Your Service
Abstract
The essay has offered a review of the film “Thank You for Your Service” by discussing the experiences of the Veterans of Iraq war and how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is affecting the lives as civilians. Thank You for Your Service is an American documentary that documents the story of Iraq war veterans who are trying to adapt to life. The soldiers have PTSD, which makes it challenging for them to adapt to life as civilians. While some soldiers do not get the support of life since their wives left them, others get the help of the families.
Thank You for Your Service
“Thank You for Your Service” is an American film about the Iraq war veterans who are trying to adapt to life as a civilian. The main story of the movie concerns a group of war veterans with the partners who are all connected to the organizing events of the Iraq war. The experiences of the battle have made every soldier in the movie to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) of one kind or the other (Lewis, 2018). For that reason, the wives and children absorb the pain that their husbands are going through osmosis and physically shield them against the disorder. In some instances, PTSD did manifest to the soldiers in nightmares, violence, and or sleeplessness. Sometimes PTSD took the form of physical aspect like in the case of Tausolo who serviced bomb blast and is suffering from memory dropouts that have early symptoms of Alzheimer’s illness. The essay provides a review of the movie “thank you for your service.”
The movie does not express PTSD condition of the characters in a clichéd way. At both the start and end of the film, there is a bit of combat action with snippets of the Iraq battle strewn throughout. Besides, there are some moments where characters in the film seem to be involved in violent crime, thereby depicting how most documentaries portray returning veterans of war. Nonetheless, the director and producer of the movie depict the characters as the source of information about what they have been going through after the war, understand their limits, and what they are capable of based on the state. The most crucial point is the things that are happening to the characters and how they feel about what they are going through, as well as how the trauma that they have experienced is affecting their perceptions (Samet, 2011). Most information regarding their experiences is captured through profane dialogue, which captures the way men and women interact with each other during private moments. Through talking, the film evokes fond memories about the US veterans of the war that made the soldiers suffer from most of them stating that the best moment of the life was coming home alive and reuniting with their families.
There are some instances that the movie is unsubtle in approach. When Solo suffers flashback while playing a battle theme video, he becomes violent, making his pregnant wife deeply frightened (Lewis, 2018). On the other hand, Teller experiences continued dramatic performances, which include Bleed for This and Whiplash, delivering a great turn that is effective for the restraint. For that reason, since he did not succumb to histrionics, Teller delivers a character’s desolation with stiff physicality and haunted eyes. Besides, the supporting performance also seems useful across the board where Koale makes a vivid impression while Solo, Cole, and Haze made the most of their brief time on screen. Castle-Hughes and Bennet are also reliable as wives to the war veterans based on their supportive and fearful nature due to the state of the emotionally damaged husbands who are being haunted by the experiences of the Iraq war.
The movie portrays the little support that American veterans of war get after retiring or surviving any battle. The most painful scene of the film “Thank You for Your Service” is when Tausolo, Adam, and their colleagues are running about following the government’s bureaucracy while trying to get treatment for either physical or mental problem. The movie shows that individuals working for the Veterans Administration are aware that they have little power to help improve the lives of war veterans. In some instances, in the movie, people working for Veteran Administration are seen to be apologetic and frustrated due to lack of power to help the returnees of war. When both Tausolo and Adam are sited in the crowded waiting room waiting for their numbers to be called, the film keeps on cutting and showing shots of veterans of war whose bodies had been devasted by the battle: a man emptying a catheter bag, another soldier putting his beer down so that he can shake the hand of a fellow soldier, and a soldier with a prosthetic leg (Lewis, 2018). The tone of the scene is not just cynical and makes the experiences of the soldiers both during the war and after the war while in the US devastating.
Thank you for Your Services is an American movie about the veterans of the Iraq war suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the experiences of the war and trying to adapt to life as a civilian. Every soldier in the movie is suffering from the different disorder, making it challenging for their families to cope with the pain that manifests in the form of nightmares, sudden outburst of violence, and sleeplessness. The most important theme about the film is a depiction of how veterans of the Iraq war are feeling about things that they are going through, as well as how the trauma that they have experienced is affecting their perception. Besides, it also shows how the government has not done much in helping returnees of war based on the bureaucracy that they are required to follow to get government services despite the contribution they have made to the country.
Reference
Lewis, D. (2018). Thank You for Your Service: Why Elderly Veterans with PTSD Need Medical-Legal Partnerships. Elder LJ, 26, 365.
Samet, E. (2011). On War, Guilt and’Thank You for Your Service. Washington Monthly.