Through The Valley (DVD, 2008)

In the Valley of Elah is director Paul Haggis' latest in which he tackles the war in Iraq and some of the effects it is having on the young men and women when they come back to American soil and also the effects on the families back home when their loved ones return from overseas. The movie stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric and James Franco. It focuses on a father (Jones) searching for the truth of what really happened to his son when he returned to his American military base. Following his son's mysterious disappearance, Hank Deerfield travels to New Mexico and enlists the help of a local police officer (Theron) after the military police are less than helpful in determining why his son has gone AWOL. You figure they would be a little more helpful with soldiers and families dealing with issues on their return from the war, would you not? But Hank is a lifetime military man. He's been to Vietnam. Both his sons were in the military. He knows how to talk to these boys, he knows what they have gone through and what they will go through. And because of this, he will find out what happened to his son, Mike.