“The Messenger”
A Film Reflection
Movie Poster – “The Messenger”
There’s a television show on Discovery called “World’s Toughest Jobs.” It’s covered such forms of employment as crab fisherman, high-rise building window washer and hockey goalie. However, I think that the world’s toughest job has to be that of the “messenger.” Indeed, the person who delivers news to families that their loved one has perished in combat.
Woody Harrelson Leads the Cast
Oren Moverman directs the film “The Messenger.” Woody Harrelson plays the crusty Captain Tony Stone. He subsequently takes the newbie, Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) under his wing, and teaches him all the ins and outs of the job. One of the first things Stone says to Montgomery is “Soldiers go to war and everyone waves flags and applauds. They look at charts and study strategy and have “informed opinions.” And then bullets fly and soldiers die and it’s such a shock. F–k that! What did they think it was gonna be like? Fear Factor?”
So true. And yet losing your loved one – especially a parent who loses a child – is still, understandably, a searing bolt straight into the heart.
Grief
While Stone handles his position with respect for the grieving families, he’s erected a wall between himself and those to whom he delivers the unbearable news. But young Montgomery cannot help but become intimately involved with each KIA (“Killed In Action”). This could be because he barely escaped a deployment in Iraq and guilt pervades his emotional landscape. Stone and Montgomery both suffer from the shrapnel of PTSD. They absorb the flak from violently grieving family members stoically, as though they need to pay that price for coming out of combat alive.
The Plot
Although they don’t always see eye-to-eye, the two messengers bond, and Stone even falls off the wagon after three years of no alcohol, so they can try and forget the horrors of war and of the newly gaping holes in the families they encounter.
Montgomery, who is a genuinely nice guy, falls for Olivia (Samantha Morton), the widow of one of his first KIAs. He comes back to her house from time to time, to check on her, and he works on her car, spends time with her little boy, and helps her move some big boxes into the U-Haul when she decides she needs to move back home to New Orleans.
The Memory Continues
One lesson to take away is that people come and people go, but those in-between moments in the sunshine of a loved one’s presence, are to be cherished for as long as the heart keeps on beating.
I was inspired to share this reflection with you after coming upon a friend’s blog entry about her personal experience with messengers who had arrived to deliver the news of her son’s death.
The Air Force representatives were waiting at our home when we arrived from work to tell us what had happened; our daughter Emily was at their side standing at the top of the driveway waiting for me and my husband and her siblings to arrive. It was shock and disbelief that this could have happened – after all William had only one week left and then he would be returning home. He died while disarming a roadside bomb. It was his job as an EOD technician and he loved what he did but unfortunately his 200th mission was his last.
“The Messenger” reminds us that the decision to roll into war really needs to be fully considered because there will be consequences for the families whose beloved children are sent into the fray.
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