About George Thompson
Location: Missouri
Occupation: Writer
Bio: Bio I was born in the small town of Ironton, Missouri in the mid-40s. My father was a minister and my mother was the devoted pastor’s wife. We moved when I was three to Kansas City where Dad pastored several churches, then moved to Fulton in 1960 where I graduated from Fulton High School in 1962. Dad was pastor at the Southside Baptist Church from 1960 through 1967. It was during those teenage years that I started writing poetry, articles, short stories and novels. Many poems were of a “grim” nature because I was usually either frustrated or felt depressed when I wrote them. Further in-depth study of myself helped me to see matters in a different, more enlightened way and gave me a much greater peace Bio of mind. That feeling came about when I realized that a Higher Power held control over my life and although I felt free here on earth to explore many things because God gave me the mind to make my own decisions based on the “terms” I had set for myself it was I who set the terms and levels of frustration and worry. Once I turned everything over to God, my writings became more positive and that feeling of emptiness I once had was lifted. My faith in God and the good intentions of mankind grows daily. I believe in the power of words, whether they are written, spoken or through the motions and spelling in sign language. They can be used to empower or defeat, accept or deny. My poetry is just one of many means of communicating. Retired now, I make my home in Ironton once again after being gone for sixty years. I write a poem every day, an article or two a week and have a continuing column at wickedwordsmith.com on the Web. My pleasures are writing, feeding birds and taking care of my new cat, Mandi.
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No one wins.
Elah, a valley in Iraq, is best known as the location where David killed Goliath. This film spends less than five of its ninety some odd minutes there. The rest of the time is spent stateside some marines including Mike Deerfield who have returned for some R&R before going on to their next assignments.
Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) plays a retired military policeman who learns his son has gone AWOL off the base and doesn’t get the answers he wants from the military. He visits the local police station and a detective played by Charlize Theron tells him his problems are with the military not the civilians. Then, a body is found and identified as Mike Deerfield who has been brutally murdered, cut into pieces and burned. A jurisdictional dispute ensues as to whether the crime is on city or military property and the military wins. Meanwhile, Hank’s beleaguered wife (Susan Sarandon) sits at home and cries, wishing for days that were better. Sarandon’s scene at the morgue is unique and unusual unlike any I’ve seen before.
The military can’t seem to handle things properly and Hank takes it upon himself to run an investigation into the cause or causes of his son’s death. He believes it was murder done by one or more of Mike’s marine buddies and he runs through lots of red tape to get to the bottom of the investigation and find the culprits responsible for his son’s death.
The special features include: In The Valley of Elah: After Iraq; In The Valley of Elah: Coming Home, and; Additional Scene (deleted scene from movie).
Superb performances by all three Academy Award winners in this film. Tommy Lee Jones is grumpy, while Susan Sarandon is frumpy and at a loss for words. Charlize Theron is a little over dressed for her part as a detective, but she gets a bloody nose and takes it with pride. There are scenes that will shake you up, but none will have you crying. The actors hired to play the other Marines in the platoon do excellent jobs as if they were pros and have appeared before a movie camera before. I’m sure it was quite exciting to have scenes with Jones and wondered several times what was running through their minds as they acted out their parts next to an Academy Award winner. All in all a good movie, but one that is disquieting.
