Review: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk 👎
Here is my review for Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk [IMDb, Trailer], which we got to see in the Sneak Preview about 4 weeks ago here in Berlin.
The movie tells the story of private Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn), who returns to the US after having served in the Iraq War. Ang Lee uses frequent flashbacks to simultaneously explain the events in Iraq and in contrast show the reception Lynn and his squad get back home. As a celebrated war hero, who was caught on video trying to save his squad leader during an ambush, he and his squad are now traveling through the country to be the faces of the military forces. While Lynn flashes back to the horrors of war, they are ushered into talk shows and several other public appearances. Ultimately, they have to participate in the NFL half-time show, where all the seriousness of their original mission is completely lost as they march around in figures to a Destiny Child song.
The general idea of the movie is good. Rapidly switching between the horrible (and quite ruthlessly shown) reality of war and the pretty surreal fuss they have to deal with on their “victory tour”, could have been a very powerful tool to convey some deeper message. There is also a nice side-story, in which Lynn’s sister (Kristen Steward) tries to convince him not to return to Iraq. Also the interactions within the squad, as each member tries to deal with what happened, adds some actual content to the movie. Overall, however, the story develops super slowly and there are some very unnecessary lengths, especially in the beginning. It feels like the impotence the soldiers must feel towards everything took hold of the director as well.
Ben Fountain wrote the book, which this movie is based on. It is described as a satirical piece that touches on several topics around war, its commercialization and how incorrectly it is perceived by the US population. He received several awards for his work. Without having read it myself, I have to assume it would be a better recommendation than this movie. No matter if it is well written or not, I doubt that this movies does it justice. It is not engaging, entertaining, educational or anything of value.
When I initially saw that Ang Lee directed the movie, I expected quite a lot. Life of Pie was absolutely brilliant and I consider it a farce that they even brought it up on the movie poster (see above).
As I cannot in good conscience recommend this, let me direct you to The Night Manager instead. I might write a little more about it at some point, but just let me say that I enjoyed it a lot.
