In the Valley of Elah

Last Tuesday the class saw the film "In the Valley of Elah". I did not get the chance to see it myself because I was sick that day.

Fortunally, I have seen the movie before and I am now going to do my best to write a little about it.

This Acadamy-Award nominated film is starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.

The plot in the movie is based on actual events. It is based upon the Iraq war, abused prisoners and P.T.S.D (Post-Traumatic Stress Diorder.).
It's about a young man who returns from Iraq, but is suddently gone missing. His parents get the message, and his father (Tommy Lee Jones) is desperate to search for him. After some time, along with Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), he discovers that his son has been killed.

This is when the story evolves to a story about a father despretly trying to figure out what really happend to his son. After carefully observations, he realizes that his son's friends from the army ,stands behind the murder of his son.

Of course, the military and the government do their best to cover up what really happend the night of the murder, and they to their best to keep the press away.

This movie portrays how soldiers have to deal with a lot of pressure and active combat. It also shows how many people who have to suffer because of the Iraq war.

Carina Jurs

Lions for Lambs

This is one of the topics i chose from the movie "Lions for Lambs."

"What consequences might there be if the press and the media do not write the stories the government wants them to. Discuss."

In "Lions for Lambs" we get to see how the press works and how they get some of their stories from the inside. Sometimes it can be difficult for the people to rely on the press and the media, are their stories reliable?

In the film we see how reporter Janine Roth gets her story from Senator Jasper Irving.The senator “leaks” out a story about what the next move in the Iraq war will be.
He does this because he believes this is something the people in America would like to know, Janine on the other hand does not want to publish this.

What are the consequences here?
The people will not be informed about something the Senate wants them to know, and this will arise a internal conflict between the press (in this case with Janine Roth) and the government. This might evolve to a even bigger story, “ The press refuses to cooperate with the government.”
The Senators story will probably leak out anyway, maybe through a different paper. Words and statements may be twisted as the story is written by someone who wasn't in the room at the time the story came out. This will cause a lot of chaos. The government would have to do something drastic to get the story right, like holding a press conference. It would cause a lot of trouble when it was suppose to be subtle and discrete.


Carina Jurs