LOS ANGELES — Tommy Lee Jones has better things to do than sit in a hotel room and answer reporters’ questions about his latest film, “In the Valley of Elah.” But he’s here, sitting next to a much livelier Susan Sarandon. Granted, throughout most of the press conference, Jones is scribbling away on a piece of paper. Only every now and then does he stop drawing and survey the room.
Being examined by Jones is like being analyzed by a discerning deity. His toughened face observes the person for a moment, and magically it seems the actor has learned everything about that individual that there is to gather. Then, with perhaps the slightest internal sigh, Jones returns to his doodling.
“Tommy doesn’t suffer fools easily,” costar Charlize Theron admitted. “But I have great respect for someone who’s very direct and honest.”
Directness and honesty were also goals for this film, directed and written by Paul Haggis. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has enjoyed a successful streak lately. He wrote the screenplays for “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Casino Royale,” “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” the last of which he also directed.
With “Elah,” Haggis tackled his most demanding subject yet — the Iraq War. The film is based on a true story that appeared in the Playboy article “Death and Dishonor,” by Mark Boal. While Haggis fictionalized parts of the story, the picture remains truthful to the article’s basic criticism that the war is dehumanizing U.S. troops beyond repair.
The plot follows Hank Deerfield (Jones) in his efforts to track down his son, Mike (Jonathan Tucker), who was reported as AWOL as soon as he returned home from serving in Iraq. As Hank starts to uncover the details surrounding his son’s disappearance, he gains an understanding of how the war is hurting young American soldiers’ psychological health.
While in Iraq, Mike shot a series of videos with his Army-issued camera. When Hank views these movies, he witnesses with alarm the soldiers’ waning morality when placed in a quagmire such as Iraq. Hank sees his son doing things he’d never do prior to leaving for duty.
In one clip, Mike is sitting next to an injured Iraqi civilian. Mike deliberately touches the man’s wound and asks him, “Does this hurt?” The man cries out in pain, but Mike continues repeatedly to poke the wound. The soldier then stares into the camera and smiles, as if to say, “Look at the power I have in this place.”
Sarandon, who plays Hank’s wife, Joan, saw the necessity of making a movie that scrutinized what was happening to our soldiers serving overseas.
“It was really time to deliver something that acknowledges that war does terrible things to people,” Sarandon said. “It takes really good people and messes them up in a way that’s pretty significant.”
Haggis was also fascinated by soldiers’ altered sense of right and wrong when they are forced to survive in a frenzied battle zone. If an Iraqi child steps in front of an Army truck, should the driver step on the brakes and risk exposing his unit to a potential insurgent attack? Or is the kid’s death just an unfortunate sacrifice that goes with the job.
“The movie is about what our brave men and women have to do [in Iraq],” Haggis said. “It’s about the impossibility of giving them tasks where there is no right answer, and where there’s no way to get through the day without having some great dilemma.”
Jones, whose character’s estimation of America undergoes a drastic metamorphosis, was attracted to the project for one central reason.
“It’s actually about something,” Jones said. “This war is something that’s been speaking to you in the dead of the night. It’s something that everybody has in common.”
Despite the movie’s unquestionable relevance and Haggis’ impressive track record, however, it took more than two years to get the movie off the ground.
“It was 2003 when we were coming up with this idea,” Haggis said. “We were still driving around with flags in our cars, and our president was telling us that it was unpatriotic to even question what was happening in Iraq. Back then, this was a story no one wanted to hear.”
By the time Haggis won two Academy Awards for “Crash,” in 2006, it was apparent that the public was finally prepared to embrace movies that were not frightened to ask the unsettling questions. Theron, who plays a police detective assisting Hank in his investigation, jumped at the opportunity to work with Haggis and, especially, Jones.
“I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part of Hank,” Theron said. “The thing that blew me away was how accessible his vulnerability was. Very few men are willing to access that vulnerability, but Tommy did.”
Now, if only he would look up from that darn piece of paper.