Last Flag Flying | Richard Linklater | NYFF 2017
Last Flag Flying is the latest from director Richard Linklater from a screenplay he wrote with Darryl Ponicsan based upon Ponicsan’s 2005 novel of the same name and is a spiritual sequel to the earlier novel/film adaptation The Last Detail.
The soft-spoken Doc (Steve Carell) comes out of the blue to the bar run by the loose-lipped Sal (Bryan Cranston), a fellow Vietnam vet that he served with long ago. He’s not there with good news, his young son died tragically in Iraq serving a tour of duty with The Marines. This brings them together to find their old buddy Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) now working as a Reverend, who they convince to join them on a road trip to help Doc collect Larry Jr’s body from Dover Air Force Base and bring him to his scheduled burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
It’s upon their arrival at the Air Force Base where they learn from Larry Jr’s close friend and fellow Marine Charlie Washington (J. Quinton Johnson) how he died, prompting Doc to forgo a military burial so he can give his son a civilian burial close to home. This creates a unique road trip story that is right in Linklater’s wheelhouse, bringing together old friends with a fractured past that are forced to come to terms with one another in the name of a grieving friend.
Their journey together brings back their days as wild young men in the service, and the sort of trouble that they got in that ended up getting a fellow Marine killed and causing Doc to receive a dishonorable discharge. Their past and present become intertwined and they’re forced to take a sobering journey together that has them confront the past and present all at once.
While this is often a slow meditative experience that is quite sobering, there’s tons of that trademark humor that a director has to utilize when he has comedic talents such as Carell and Cranston at his disposal, not to mention the always electric energizing force that is Laurence Fishburne. There’s a nice blend of comedy and drama, as seen through the contrast in the wild unhinged performance from Cranston and the understated and mournful performance from Carell that are met in the middle by Fishburne’s character.
Some may find the pace too glacial and slow but it’s this patient approach that helped me feel like I was on this journey with these characters, slowly digesting their shared history and the way that their previous actions have all led to this moment in time whether they want to realize it or not. Ponicsan and Linklater smartly navigate these waters in a way that brings out the best of all of their actors.
Last Flag Flying is a deeply moving film that has enough moments of levity to balance out all the sobering looks at humanity that it patiently unfolds and reflects upon in a gentle, thoughtful manner.
Rating: 8.0/10
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