Clift: 'Taking Chance:' The Human Cost of the War

Every seat was filled in the screening room at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington, which is not unusual for the invitation-only previews of major films hosted by the MPAA. What was different this Monday evening was the number of military officers in attendance, including some four-star generals in uniform. Among them was Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, who had been the commanding officer in Iraq in the deadliest presurge days. They were there to see the HBO drama, "Taking Chance," which is about a military escort officer returning to the family the remains of a young Marine killed in action outside Baghdad.

MPAA head Dan Glickman said later he had been nervous about how the military brass might react, but their take was positive. "Taking Chance" is not an antiwar movie, but it is a graphic depiction of the cost of war, images that for the most part Americans have been deliberately shielded from. The movie is based on a true story and depicts in painstaking detail what happens to the bodies of the fallen from the time they are bagged and iced for the plane trip that takes them first to the American air base at Ramstein, Germany, and then to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware—and then, more often than not, to some cemetery in rural America.

At his press conference that same evening, President Obama was asked if he planned to lift the ban enforced by President Bush on photographing the caskets arriving at Dover. Obama said his administration was conducting a review of the policy, and that he wanted to know more before he made a decision. He added that this had become personal for him, that in just three weeks on the job he's found how painful it is to sign letters of condolence to the families that have lost loved ones. The prohibition on taking photographs at Dover has actually been in place since 1991 when Bush Sr. was in office, and while there are good arguments both for and against the ban, that's not what "Taking Chance" is about. None of the movie was filmed at the Dover Mortuary, but the facility is faithfully re-created, taking us inside a process most Americans aren't aware of. If they were, they would be intensely proud of the respectful, even reverential, treatment given to the fallen every step of the way. Each time remains are loaded onto a hearse preparing to leave the mortuary, an announcement is made and everybody at the facility stops work and lines up along the driveway for a ceremonial salute. They've done this more than 4,000 times since the Iraq War got underway.

Lt. Col. Michael Strobl had a desk job when Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and he would routinely scroll through the casualties, feeling guilty for his comfort while others made the ultimate sacrifice. When he saw a Private First Class Chance Phelps who hailed from the same hometown, he volunteered to escort him home. Except home was now Dubois, Wyoming, a place Strobl had never heard of, much less been. Their journey together begins at the Dover Mortuary, where we see water suctioned out of caskets after the long trip on ice, and personal effects carefully removed from arms, fingers, and necks. Phelps, 19, whose remains Strobl is there to escort, was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday in 2004. Strobl is given the medal along with Phelps's watch still set to Baghdad time, a wooden cross and dog tags, and instructed to keep them on his person until he delivers them to the family.

Tall, lean and standing ramrod straight, Strobl attended the screening with his young son. They sat in the front row. Kevin Bacon, whose portrayal of Strobl in the film captures a man who is military through and through, from his close-cropped hair to his tightly controlled emotions, lingered in the back, looking very nonmilitary with tousled hair and crediting technical advisors from the military for his spot-on performance. "I couldn't be a Marine; it's not in my DNA," he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "They were all over me; they didn't want me to look like a jerk." The actor said he had played very few real people in his career, and it was an honor to be able to hang around Strobl and capture his essence.

Arguments for and against the war fall away in the presence of the sorrow that "Taking Chance" lays bare. One of many affecting moments in the film is when Strobl sees the meticulous care given to the uniform Phelps is wearing even though no one will see it because his extensive injuries require a closed-casket funeral. He had earned six ribbons in less than a year in the corps, just two fewer than Strobl had accumulated over a 17-year career. The movie closes with photos of Phelps as a boy full of life, playing sports and grinning for the camera. The screening room remained darkened as the credits rolled and many in the audience, judging by the audible sniffling, struggled to regain their composure.