The Dry Land (2010)

Wow! Such a good movie.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A ponderous message-movie that is pretty-much all drama (there is very little "lite" here). The Dry Land is a story of an Iraq war vet returning home to rural western Texas to the loving arms of his wife (America Ferrera -- TV's "Ugly Betty", Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) only to realize he cannot make things "right" in his mind with what occurred on the other side of the world.He meets fellow soldiers and friends and tries to make peace; but the film depicts the folly of war. None of the actors do a poor job on this film and the subject matter is important. The Dry Land is a film one hates to criticize or put-down as I am afraid the criticism will be misconstrued. My problem(s) with the film are not the war or the actors on the screen ... this is simply an "average film" from an un-proved director (this is Ryan Piers Williams' first full-length production).Humans aren't made to be killing machines without something inside each of us changing. For a brief time, it felt as if this was going to be yet another retread of the Americanized version of the Danish film Brothers; but it eventually steered itself into a different direction which was good. Saying that -- there really isn't much else to discuss about this quiet film.Like it's title suggests ... the story doesn't meander like a river -- it is just all-out and flat. There is an expanse of land to look at and take in -- and that is what this film is all about. Look at war. Look at its problems. Look at its "solutions". Look at us. Look ...

Writer-director Ryan Piers Williams does, and he has been researching and reading about the subject for five years.The result is "The Dry Land". But how can after five years researching something not fair showed up !James characteristics is not match with what it have to be, not real. some one who is care about what happen to animals, but human. Compare to others James is more sensitive to small detail of life which is not acceptable, because he just came back from Iraq and what he have done there must made him more though than before and James doesn't remember what he have done in Iraq, that's whole idea to make the movie. Raymond Gonzales (Wilmer Valderrama) and Henry (Diego Klattenhoff) are quite close to reality of whom had war experience, Raymond still wants to be active and naughty as old days because he missed it and Henry wants to forget everything as he said: "Help me end this".It's better to show the war effect on both side simultaneously.

The Dry Land offers a straightforward, apolitical and moving study of the after-effects of the Iraqi war, portraying very effectively the complexity of the situation, and men's typically self-destructive need to try and hold it all in. It's such an irony – having equipped them with the requisite technical knowledge, we send our young, tough boy-men braves into battle at an age when they are at their physical peak and believe they are both invincible and immortal...and by this very same token, they are probably one of the most vulnerable groups of all, in terms of the fallible and susceptible coping mechanisms necessary for this kind of situation. How can we be surprised that soldiers return from war unable to leave behind the first-hand exposure to all sorts of the horrors that they've witnessed?In film-making terms, it reinforced my view that the better Iraqi war films seem to the ones about the after-effects back home, rather than the war itself – the obvious reference point in this regard being the excellent 'In The Valley of Elah' – continuing to mark a shift away from gung-ho action type movies to more thoughtful and reflective studies of the longer-term impact and consequences of war on the human psyche. And although The Dry Land did not benefit from the type of powerhouse performance of a Tommy Lee Jones, the main characters were well-drawn and empathically believable, centred around a brave performance by a previously relatively-unknown lead, Ryan O'Nan.If there is a flaw, then a couple of plot contrivances felt slightly clumsy and forced – James starting a job in a slaughterhouse within a day or two of returning, then his mates taking him out into the Texan desert for a spot of post-booze-up late-night rabbit shooting. Both seemed rather insensitive to what he might have just been through, but I suppose the counter-argument would be that if the protagonists were not aware there was anything wrong, then why wouldn't James want to shoot the local wildlife?It was great to see the backbone of the cast make the effort to attend for the Q&A after the screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival – I was left with a strong sense of collective belief in the film they had made. The Director (Ryan Piers Williams) was particularly lucid and clearly knew his subject well. He can be rightfully proud of a superior piece of film-making that tackles a difficult subject head-on but with sensitivity, without allowing any unnecessary treacly sentimentality to creep in. I was left wondering about the help and support available to help people like James recover their lives and, given the hopeful ending to the film, would be delighted to see a sequel involving the same Director and cast. So, Ryan, you've done half the job in providing an excellent awareness-raiser – now could you finish the job by filming the equally-testing road towards recovery? 8/10

So far, my favorite Sundance film of 2010. The Dry Land is a deeply-felt, tone perfect portrait of an Iraqi war veteran's struggles to re-integrate into his marriage, family and community, as well as his journey to make peace with the events of his personal war.This film is NOT political in any sense of the word, but rather a very human story, told by a director and actors who obviously care about both the characters and the many war vets struggling to readjust.The film uses a very clever metaphor to bring us into the horrors of war, and the camera closely follows James to involve us from his point of view and to provide the intimacy needed to tell such a personal and troubling story.If you are a war vet, or if you know or love one, or if you simply really DO care about the soldiers in combat zones throughout the world, SEE THIS FILM!Warning: This film contains some graphic scenes and may break your heart.