IS TAKING CHANCE AN ANTI-WAR FILM?
Only those who subscribe to HBO on cable had an opportunity to see the awardwinning film Taking Chance on Memorial Day 2011. Directed by Ross Katz, the film is a true story based on a journal written into a screenplay by Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, who volunteers as military escort officer to accompany the dead body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to Phelps’s hometown of Dubois, Wyoming in 2004. The film traces each step of the journey, indicating exactly how the military handles such assignments and the impact on civilians and former military along the way. From the slow salutes of the body to the final memorial service, Stroble (played by Kevin Bacon) visibly holds back tears over the teenage American, slain in Iraq by an IUD, and the solemn music in the film puts filmviewers to the same test. The main puzzle in the film, why Stroble volunteered to leave a desk assignment to make the trek, is answered as he confesses some guilt for decisions he made in the Marines despite rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Perhaps the main surprise in the film is that when Phelps’s body arrives in the town with a population of 962 persons, the entire town is prepared to honor their son, many dressed in full military uniforms. The film ends with pictures of Phelps as a boy, always with wide smiles, and has a dedication not only to Phelps’s memory but also to all those who have died in Iraq. For those who hold the military in high esteem, Taking Chance is a fitting recognition of those who sacrifice themselves for their country. For those who oppose war, the film can be viewed as a reminder of the human toll. The film is a breakthrough in another sense. Photographing coffins of those dying in war was banned in 1991 by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to hide the cost of the upcoming Gulf War. After President Barack Obama became president, the ban was lifted, effective February 26, 2009. While deliberating whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, his insomnia brought him to Dover Air Force Base to see the arrival of eighteen coffins on midnight October 26, 2009. MH