Traveling Movie

...OK, its not exactly a movie about traveling in the sense I engage in most of the time, but the HBO movie Taking Chance is something very special indeed.

The movie is based on a real life story written by a Marine Colnel escorting the body of a young soldier named Chance Phelps home to his family after he was killed in action in Iraq. Let me be clear to action junkies - this movie is subtle and quietly in your face as opposed to non-stop, and it makes no statements outright with regards to US involvement in any war; rather this is a film designed to make you think...and feel, and that is an almost unheard of rarity in modern Hollywood. There are litterally dozens of slightly variant storylines moving along through the film and all of them intersect around this real life young man taken so very early.

This is not a mutli-million dollar big screen event - it was however well produced by HBO for direct to cable viewing. Those looking for a strong anti-war message will be as dissapointed as those looking for a "gung-ho" mantra - Taking Chance is neither. It will perhaps best speak to the hundreds of thousands of people who grew up in families with military ties, though I imagine everyone who sees it will come away touched.

So this will be on my IPOD for the trip to DRC next week - I hope you get a chance to see it.