Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) Review!!

Synopsis – 19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing Iraq battle. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his squad – contrasting the realities of war with America’s perceptions.

My Take – If there’s one filmmaker that never ceases to amaze me because of his ability to keep reinventing himself in terms of the technical standpoint and storytelling is none other than Ang Lee. From Sense And Sensibility to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to Lust, Caution to Brokeback Mountain to Life of Pi, the latter two especially known for their stellar narratives that won Lee Academy Awards in directing. Coming off the back of the incredibly immersive visuals in Life of Pi, one would expect Lee‘s latest project to have some semblance to his renown. Instead, this film feels like an experiment gone terribly wrong. Worse, nothing about the film feels like an Ang Lee film. Sure, there are strong moments and a few subtle things that I really enjoyed but they seem to be surrounded by things I disliked. In terms of visuals the film is very impressive, however I would ask, is this the right genre of film to showcase such technical cinematography? Obviously such stunning shots could only be a plus to the film but for a film that is really more about one’s internal struggles rather than exterior conflicts I do find it quite an odd decision to make this film in such a way. I did go in expecting an all out war film since I have heard of all of these things that Ang Lee is doing in this film, in terms of visuals, which did leave me surprised but also disappointed at how few those scenes are. Essentially this film takes place within a time span of one day and all takes place at this football game! Based on author Ben Fountain‘s novel, the story follows, Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn), a 19-year-old American soldier returning from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004. After a video of the group of soldiers known as Bravo Company goes viral, they are assigned to do some kind of victory tour now and part of that schedule is for them to be a part of the Thanksgiving Day football game’s halftime show. Despite being shaken by his unsuccessful attempt to his fatherly-loving superior Shroom (Vin Diesel), Billy along with his teammates are ushered around like a troupe of performing monkeys with little regard for what they have been through or how glaring theatrics might affect soldiers coming straight out of battle. There’s a lot of pomp and celebration, girls fall at their feet, their agent Albert (Chris Tucker) even informs them about Hollywood wanting to make a film out of it, the virgin Billy even falls for a cheerleader Faison (Mackenzie Leigh) who have a thing for soldiers; but through all the glitz and glam, Billy is struggling to play along and we see this through a series of flashbacks that takes him and us back to that fateful day in Iraq, leading to his confusion that should he use his new found fame as a good opportunity to get himself a honorable discharge as suggested by his older sister Kathryn (Kristen Stewart).

Although there have been countless untold acts of heroism by American soldiers on the field of battle throughout history, this film isn’t based on any of them. That, of course, would be perfectly fine – IF the scenarios on which its story were built bore any relationship to reality. This film is sometimes described as satire, if that were accurate, it would explain some of the story’s many inaccuracies. However, satire is supposed to be funny and/or provide some meaningful social commentary, neither of which is true here. Instead what two-time Oscar-winning director Ang Lee and his screenwriter, Jean-Christophe Castelli give us is the most clichéd, unrealistic, uninspiring, pointless and offensive war film. The storyline bears little resemblance to the typical war genre film, but this one is not about guns, bombs and bodies. Filmed in ultra-high definition with extensive shallow depth of field, Billy and the squad are often in pin-sharp focus against soft backgrounds, a technique that keeps them in a separate plane of existence to the crassly insensitive stage onto which they have been thrust. The surreal stadium scenes are a spectacular but clichéd message about commodity wars for a public wanting to ‘make America great again’. It is hard not to empathize with Billy or feel his disorientation as he watches prancing cheerleaders and hears musical fireworks exploding all around him while he struggles with flashbacks of hand-to-hand combat in the midst of a mortar firestorm. I can understand the message that the film was trying to send about being considered a ‘war hero’, about all the costs and sacrifices that soldiers are making each day and the way they are treated. How decorated war heroes are just a sort of title, people will show you and tell you how much they appreciate your services and what not but when it comes to actually giving anything we never seem to be so eager to. It is a film that showcases this idea of being crowned a ‘hero’ and what it really means, and sure that was quite an interesting theme to look at. But perhaps to make this whole story more impactful instead of having flashbacks tell us the story overseas we get a whole first half of the film showing it to us, before all of the victory tour stuff. It just makes it very hard as an audience to understand the implications and the sacrifices that they have made if this sort of flashback storytelling is used. It is often hard to make a good war film that isn’t based on a true story, this is likely because when audiences know that it is fictitious the stakes wouldn’t be so high, and it won’t really touch people’s hearts so to speak. So both these elements combine to create the war’s lack of importance which is a very bad thing to have happen. I think that the best thing this film did was handle the PTSD as the real horror of war and not trying to glorify the combat. As I start to get further away from that idea the rest of the film seems almost like a low budget film.

The parts in Iraq feel incredibly low budget, and when it came to the actual military scenes they felt quite unreal. Some scenes move far too quickly while others seem to last forever, and while it is only an hour and 53 minutes it feels much longer than that. That said, there’s no getting away from the fact that the presentation makes it feel like a made-for-TV film most of the time. Director Lee opted to experiment with the ultra-realism of the new 120 frames per second, rather than the standard 24 fps. Though this may seem like a minor detail that shouldn’t be addressed in a review of the film, it’s impossible to ignore this impact. Technical advancements in film and digital have resulted in some exciting new effects for films, but this high speed approach creates a soap opera look and feel that will likely be disorienting to many viewers. Although the full effect may not be outright noticeable in normal cinemas, the clarity on the close-ups is distracting, while leaving the background quite fuzzy and out of focus, in my opinion, many will find this new look to be “not right” for a film, and prefer the traditional look. Others may embrace the heightened sense of reality of being right there with the characters. Of course, this is Ang Lee‘s film, so there is no shortage of stunning visuals and expert shots. Beyond the technical aspects, the performances are also not at par; Kristen Stewart with her limited screen time is the best part of the film. Steve Martin‘s work was also disappointing. I could not distinguish his character’s poorly-spoken stage dialect, which contained a tinge of Southern twang upon first appearing, but later seemed to fade into neutral American English. Besides, Martin is better suited and much more appreciated for his comedic roles. The same goes for Chris Tucker although his character wasn’t as prominent as Martin‘s. Vin Diesel, known now for his mainstream work, has also stepped outside of his comfort zone quite a few, and makes this one his own. His characterization also is immensely novel, considering the setting, and quite memorable, in spite of his limited screen time. Newcomer Joe Alwyn makes a decent reluctant (and lucky) hero in playing Billy, but he doesn’t have the chops to overcome the script weakness and the burden of carrying so many scenes. This is especially obvious in his unrealistic bonding scenes with cheerleader Faison played by an alright Makenzie Leigh. Their scenes together are nearly unwatchable. Not to be left out is Garrett Hedlund who convincingly shows how leadership from the captain of Bravo Company cements the comradeship of the soldiers. On the whole, ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ deserves kudos for experimenting but there is no denying that the film is a bit clunky to watch, not very well written, not very well acted, and has an overall awkward and unfinished feel to it. Until next time Ang Lee!