Thank You For Your Service

I recently watched the film Thank You For Your Service and was legitimately moved by it. The movie is a biography based on a true story of the lives and families of former US army soldiers Adam Schumann, Tausolo Aieti, and Michael Emory. Miles Teller plays Schumann in this movie and was absolutely fantastic. I was hesitant to watch this movie at first because I’m not a huge fan of his but he proved me very wrong with this role.

Thank You For Your Service is all about a group of soldiers returning from Iraq and their constant battle with PTSD. Shortly after their return, they begin to constantly relive their memories of the war by having flashbacks, memory loss, seeing and hearing things that aren’t there, and battling depression. This a very eye opening movie that gives the audience a lens that we don’t often get to see what our men and women go through after they leave the service.

This movie has a predominately white male cast aside from two key characters. Haley Bennet plays the wife of Miles Teller and has a very strong role. Although she isn’t the main character, the audience sympathises with her as she has her own battle of having to raise their children by herself and then adjusting to stay strong and battle the condition with her husband to keep the family together. The other character is Tausolo Aieti played by Beulah Koale. Koale plays a huge supporting role that the audience suffers right along with him as he struggles to get help with his conditions before it is too late.

The other important thing about this movie is how the film inadvertently tells the audience how awful this condition is and how we need to do a better job to get them the help that they so desperately need. This is made evident when one of their friends, Billy Waller, who also suffers from PTSD, comes home to find out that his wife to be has left him and has taken his child with her. Left alone to drive himself crazy, he walks into the bank where his former fiance works to find some closure and ends up shooting himself right in front of her. This is just one of the many examples in the movie that show us how much help our soldiers actually need. We also see the alarming amounts of veterans waiting for treatment in the VA hospital where we learn how much of a struggle and how long of a process it actually is to receive the treatment that they need.

This is a terrific movie and is a must watch for every American. The appreciation this movie brought me alone made the movie for me. Although it was extremely frustrating to see how our men and women suffer, I think it’s very important to bring this topic to light.