Thank You for Your Service

His film is very well done, the performances are great, the direction is great, and overall it's an excellent look at the effects of PTSD and the life that these guys come home to after fighting a useless and futile war. I call it the Cheney after effect because these guys went into a war without having any idea what they were coming back to, and they came back to a VA that completely betrayed them, because the budget was never there to take care of these guys after they devoted their hearts and souls to fighting for their nation. It's a real indictment of the VA but it's absolutely true from everything I'm told.

This is a very powerful film that just tugs at your heart. Not what I would call entertainment, but a great movie. Cheney, Bush Jr., Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz should have been tried at the Hague.

This was a very difficult movie to watch. Rather than a war movie, it's an after-the-war movie with the returning soldiers all struggling to cope with different degrees of physical and mental disability. Betrayed by loved ones they left at home, struggling with brain injuries due to road-side bomb attacks, plagued with survivor guilt and all of them let down by the Army and Veterans Administration that's supposed to be helping them.

The movie it is most like is the outstanding "The Best Years of Our Lives" which was a multi-Oscar winner in its day, following how three war veterans try, with varying degrees of success, to reclaim their civilian lives. "Thank You for Your Service" is a much more brutal version of that story in terms of language and emotional angst of the survivors. Both are well worth watching.

The acting, writing, directing and cinematography were all on point for this film but it fell short for me as its 1hr 49min length was way too long and made the film seem boring at times. Some scenes where pointlessly dragged out and should have been edited shorter. This film would of held my attention and still got the point across had it been cut down to 1:20. Not sure if the blame belongs to the director, editor or producers. Still a decent movie that sends a great message. 7/10 from me

I took my mother to see this film so that she may understand through a movie what I could not share with her verbally but what she has witnessed physically with me. This is not a war movie but a film of what war does to you and how it affects you after you are no longer in physical war but your mind stays in mental war and no one understands ( EMPATHY) except those there with you. After 3 combat tours I identified with things that went over a lot of peoples heads but the movie moved me and Dream Works did a spot on job with what we with PTS go through and why its so hard to deal with and maybe if everyone saw this film they could see the inner turmoil a soldier, a marine, a airman, and a seaman goes through after experiencing physical and mental trauma. Thank You for your service hits on all aspects from the ptsd sufferer to the spouses and all around them. this is a must see to spread compassion to all who served.

"Thank you for your service" is based on the true story of a handful of veterans of the Iraq war struggling to reintegrate society after they're done serving. While I always thought these stories were of significant interest, I do find that most films depicting them often lose themselves in preachy patriotism or some sort of either pro- or anti-war narrative that lacks nuance. "Thank you for your service" avoids these traps for the most part, but unfortunately, its narrative framework consistently remains within the realm of clichés throughout its runtime, and the film never attempts to explore and tackle other underlying issues that could have brought much appreciated depth to its story and characters.

This is all very common territory here, with the typical bureaucrats not being too helpful, the veteran affairs facilities being packed leading to tremendous delays in treatment, veterans stuck in poverty and barely able to make ends meet, and eventually drifting into criminal activity. While this accurately reflects the very disturbing reality of a society that's always ready to send its young, uneducated, vulnerable men to fight in its wars, but will shamelessly abandon them afterwards, leaving them financially and mentally broken, the film seems content to present this various components of this harsh reality such as poverty, the centralization of treatment facilities, the lack of resources, the military culture, and others in a very generic manner, and wrap those up as a more general, overarching issue that has already been exposed quite extensively in movies and television.

The film's main strength is definitely its cast, with Miles Teller starring and offering an impressive performance that is complex albeit on the edge of being a tad too stoic at times. Beulah Koale also shines throughout the film, although much like other characters, his could have benefited from a few more elaborate and less predictable narrative developments. Nevertheless, the dialogue is fluid and adds a ton of credibility to these soldiers' "brotherhood" and to their respective struggles within their relationships. Oh, and Amy Schumer is barely recognizable and impresses for as long as she appears on screen.

The direction is overall pretty good, although, again, it just doesn't feel too much out of the ordinary. The film never seems to drag, and is well paced. The war sequences are somewhat conventional, but there are a few standout shots here and there to let you know that Jason Hall knows what he's doing.

"Thank you for your service" is an overall fair undertaking, not ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, but nonetheless interesting enough to keep your eyes on the screen for its entire runtime without looking at your watch. To me it felt a bit like a missed opportunity, because I think this harsh reality that these veterans face is a major issue in our society, and warrants a more in-depth meditation, which this film will not not achieve to spark, unfortunately.