Un dernier pour la route

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Last Flag Flying" (2017) has to say something about war and politics. It does not like either of them. What i did like about this movie was not its message, perhaps, but acting and writing. On its core its a 2 hours road movie with some war veterans who share some dark secret. There are no revelations at the end of they journey, but there is some sort of accomplishment of what they did on the road.

Overall, while "Last Flag Flying" isn't as good as Richard Linklater's previous movies (far from it), i did enjoy this picture entirely because of veteran actors doing good job and reading fine lines. This is a very anti-war movie without a war and a solid road drama.

Last Flag Flying is a comedy/drama from the acclaimed director of Boyhood and Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater. It stars Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, and Bryan Cranston as three friends from the Vietnam War who get back together when Carell's son dies in action.

Despite the serious subject matter, this movie is absolutely hilarious. Cranston is absolute comedic gold. He hasn't been as funny as he is here since his Malcolm in the Middle days, and even then he may not have been quite as funny as he is here.

You would think going in that Carell would be the comedian here, but instead he is the dramatic anchor. Carell gives a surprisingly emotional performance, keeping the comedy to a minimum.

Fishburne is between the two, giving both comedy and drama when it's needed. Of the three it is hard to say which gives the best performance, but the edge must go to Cranston. The movie would probably be ten times more boring without him. There are scenes where Cranston single-handedly made the entire audience in my theater howl with laughter.

Last Flag Flying doesn't just give comedy however, it also tackles a great amount of issues that a lesser film would not have pulled off. This film explores the purpose of life, a subject that Linklater is very good at tackling. I would list some of the other issues it tackles, but if I did i would probably be here all day.

This movie is definitely not perfect. Near the middle it starts to drag, which is not that large of an issue, but for one or two scenes it is noticeable.

There is also a very manufactured conflict in the film. It feels like the writers stuck it in just so there was a conflict of some sort, but it easily could have been taken out and the movie would not have changed.

Another issue involves tone. There are a couple scenes where I genuinely could not tell if the film was trying to be serious or funny, but this, like all of the other flaws, is not that big of a deal.

Overall, I recommend Last Flag Flying because of both its hilarity and its drama. It is one of the funniest movie of the year and very profound, despite its flaws.

I give Last Flag Flying a B+.

Loved this movie, it makes you feel like you're one of the buddies going on this trip with them. It's hilarious and moving and the acting is phenomenal. I'm really surprised it doesn't have a higher rating, it feels like it's a wonderful classic. Definitely watch it!

Last Flag Flying (2017)

A great, low-key mixture of comedy and sadness. The more it went on the more I appreciated the situation, which unfolds like a play, and the ensemble acting, which is sharp. Bryan Cranston steals the show as the outgoing practical bartender veteran, but Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell are really spot on, too, in deliberately restrained ways. The film is trying to get to something here. At first it seems to be about some guys coming to terms with their time in Viet Nam, and how it compromised them then, with repurcussions ever onward. Then a slow critique of war and of the US approach to war, pretending everyone in uniform is always a hero, and fighting for questionable (or worse) causes. But an important third element grows-the actual meaning these men have for each other. They hadn't seen each other in decades, but their comraderie was almost unbroken because of some deep bond formed in wartime. And when it really comes down to it, even as they reject and hate the government for what they were forced to do, they still understood honor and respect. Including a love of country, somehow. That it's there, despite the flaws. Or something like that. (There are complications, and it would be easy and shameful to oversimplify.) The big point is: see this and give it time to settle in and warm up. The three men are deliberately an odd mix, and there are a couple of scenes that are rather too neatly contrived to make a fast point in the narrative, but overall it makes sense and is moving.

Greetings again from the darkness. Apprehension and trepidation are the emotions that strike whenever anyone compares a movie to the classic 1973 Hal Ashby/ Jack Nicholson film THE LAST DETAIL. That holds true even if the novel the film is based on was written by the same author (Darryl Ponicson) who wrote "The Last Detail" (1970), and even if the new film is directed by one of the finest directors working today – Richard Linklater. This latest doesn't play like a true sequel, but the reuniting of three men who served together in Vietnam does hammer home a couple of interesting statements while also delivering the type of dramedy that 2017 audiences tend to connect with.

Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell), a former Navy medic, has had the type of year that no one deserves. It's 2003 and he has just been notified that his Marine son was killed in action while on duty in the war in Iraq. This comes only a few months after Doc lost his beloved wife to breast cancer. It's too much for him to handle on his own, so he embarks on a mission to ask his Vietnam buddies from three decades prior to accompany him to claim his son's body at Arlington National Cemetery.

His two buddies are former Marines Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishbourne). Sal is a washed out dive bar owner and Mueller is now the Reverend at a small church. The three men share the burden of a war secret that each has tried to forget, and they begin what's basically a road trip movie of middle aged men bonding during what is the absolute low point in life for one of them. Simultaneously, it also seems like an opportunity for all three to rejoin the living.

Lost idealism is the shared trait now among the three men, though their levels of cynicism vary. Edwin Starr sang it, and the characters in this movie openly question: War … What is it good for? Doc, Sal and Mueller have separated themselves from memories of war in three distinct ways – family, booze, and God. It's only by reconnecting with each other that they begin the long overdue process of reflection. TV's are tuned to the capture of Saddam Hussein from the spider-hole, and the similarities of the Vietnam and Iraq wars are contemplated. These are patriotic men who once trusted the government, but are now so disenchanted they ask "what's the point?"

Mr. Cranston has the showiest role, but it's Mr. Carell who shines as the still-in-shock father. J Quinton Johnson also excels as the young Marine charged with accompanying the gentlemen, and the best scene of the film features Cicely Tyson as the mother of a long ago fallen soldier who crossed paths with the three leads. As you might expect in a Linklater movie, the musical choices are unusual and spot on. Bob Dylan ("Not Dark Yet"), Neil Young ("Old Man"), Eminem ("Without Me"), and Levon Helm ("Wide River to Cross") are all included.

The film is certainly an unusual blend of comedy, tragic drama, and contemporary political commentary. Unfortunately, the contrivances are too many and too frequent to allow the film and characters to breathe and achieve the greatness of a true message movie. It teases us with flashes us brilliance and then pokes us in the ribs with another goofy sidebar as if to say "just kidding". It seems this would have been better served as an intimate portrayal of these three aging men who were willing to die for their country than as a giant political anti-war statement and an accusation of how evil the government is. The ultimate message Linklater drills home: be a good friend, and be a good person. We can never have enough of those.