A fresh detail
Boyhood director Richard Linklater tackles the lives of older veterans
It took Richard Linklater 12 years to make his acclaimed 2014 film Boyhood, and almost as long to get around to making Last Flag Flying.
The two movies couldn’t be farther apart: Boyhood is a documentary-inspired coming-of-age tale in which we witness the main character (and actor) grow from a child into a young man. Last Flag is a buddy/road movie about three Vietnam veterans dealing with events from their past and present.
“This is my kind of war movie,” Linklater said. “Not a shot fired.
“It’s an antiwar film that still respects the commitment by the service members who bravely put their asses on the line with the best of intentions.”
A sequel of sorts to Hal Ashby’s 1973 classic The Last Detail, which stars Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid, and was based on the 1970 novel by Darryl Ponicsan, Last Flag Flying is an adaptation of the author’s 2005 novel of the same name.
Co-written by Linklater and Ponicsan, the film, set in 2003, follows former U.S. Navy member Larry Shepherd, a.k.a. Doc (Steve Carell), as he tracks down old Marine colleagues Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) to accompany him in burying his son, who has died while serving in Iraq.
Of course in Linklater’s hands, the film, which opens in some Canadian cities on Friday, becomes as much about the men’s latest mission as the intricacies of their interpersonal interactions.
“I loved the characters so much,” the filmmaker said, by way of explaining his tenacity in holding onto the project while making nine other films over the past decade and change.
“I loved what they meant to me, what they reflected about that stage of life, what wars do to people, long-term relationships, the big question of ‘Are we the same person in middle age as we are when we’re young?’ — it was all worth exploring.”
Last Flag Flying, you may have guessed, is not your typical war movie, or postwar movie for that matter. Traumatized by an event in their past that sent Doc to the brig, the men must negotiate their conflicted feelings about each other and the military while navigating the mined territory of their loosely defined friendship.
“The film is very much about what that life, the military life, does to you,” Linklater said, “which is not my reference. I wasn’t in the military. I don’t have much interest in that. For me, every film is a kind of exploration. I want to sort out my own feelings.
“Like a lot of people, I have profoundly mixed feelings about my country’s military interventions around the world, historically.
Like a lot of people, I have profoundly mixed feelings about my country’s military interventions around the world. DIRECTOR RICHARD LINKLATER
It’s a huge, politically important issue that speaks to our nation’s self-identity. We’re such a militarized country. It’s the fabric of our history. I think that needs to be examined.”
The astute reader would be correct in surmising that Linklater steps outside his laid-back, existential comfort zone here. Without getting bogged down in proselytizing, Last Flag Flying is rife with wry commentary at the military establishment, as spoken — and not spoken — by the three central characters, who have experienced war on the front lines, and are still contending with the aftermath.
Linklater emphasized that he has no problem questioning conventional perceptions of patriotism.
“That should always be on the table,” he said. “I’d start from the notion that no one can question someone else’s patriotism. We’re all citizens; we all love our country. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the idea of putting your blood on the line — for what? Let’s really talk about it.
“We’re such a militarized country. Once you start questioning the motives and core beliefs of this country, maybe you don’t go to war; maybe you think it’s a bad idea. But tadam! That’s unpatriotic! If (patriotism) can be defined so easily, it’s all over.”