MovieChat Forums > In the Valley of Elah (2007) Discussion > The Always Right, Know It All lead Chara...

The Always Right, Know It All lead Character Is Getting Tiresome!

posted 8 years ago by pacinofan58
3 replies | jump to latest

Of course, Jones' character had to be ex military, MP, smartest guy in the room, always knows every trick in the book to make the other Army investigators, and regular cops, look like idiots and incompetent fools!
That's how these characters are always written, and I can't think of anything more dull.
Maybe it's why shows and books I've watched, and read on real investigations, and real detectives, are always more interesting.
The experiences of real detectives, on real cases, are what make them so interesting to listen to, and what makes the way they go about their investigations so fascinating.
Experience is the missing ingredient for actors, and it's why their character being a know it all, always sounds (to me anyway) so formulaic and dull!

[–] Drooch 7 years ago

Well, the point of the movie was that Hank, impressive at his job as he may have seemed, ultimately didn't know what was going on and had been part of the problem - encouraging his son to compartmentalise his emotions to the point he went mad with PTSD and lost his life to his similarly damaged buddy.

His professional competence hid an emotional incompetence that got his son killed.

[–] thepooles-1 7 years ago

I've written about this film many times on many posts to explain how dangerous a male like Hank is. He gives a bedtime story to a young boy that venerates courage, valor and glory in a sanitized manner. He left out that young David beheaded Goliath (according to Biblical folklore) while Goliath was still semi- conscious. The miliary is of course a business and vocation that venerates violence. Hank's son became a sadist in Iraq just like young David of the Israelites who eventually became their king.
I disagree with you assuming he had professional competence. He was probably just a regular enlisted guy who gravitated towards a CID MOS. If he had excelled at his job in the Army he may have wanted to join the police force
when he left the Army but instead ended up driving a gravel truck.

[–] thepooles-1 7 years ago

I think the actual Hank character was Army CID not an MP. I don't see Hank's role as having been written to make him a know it all. He was certainly not a deep thinker. He was far from an enlightened male and father or even husband. Hank's epiphany marked by flying the flag in a distressed orientation was shallow and incomplete. He was just a clueless lost male driving a gravel truck. If he had been a hot shot in the Army he would have most likely gone into law enforcement after he left the Army. The wife had the most heart breaking epiphany. I see her as moving out and on with her life -no longer being able to share a house and life with such a male- She realized she had lost both sons because of the arrested development of her husband.
Imagine the screenwriter having to work with the actual father for authenticity. I believe the father of the murdered soldier started to see some unflattering truths about himself. That has to be very awkward during development of the script.