Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

2016 "To walk the path of a hero, you have to see how it all began."
6.2| 1h53m| R| en| More Info
Released: 11 November 2016 Released
Producted By: TriStar Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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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.

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Reviews

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
namashi_1 Two Time Academy-Award Winner for Best Director, Ang Lee is back with 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'. And heartbreakingly, this is the weakest film by the prolific director to date. Despite sincere efforts, this War-Drama is a misfire!'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' 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.The biggest problem with 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' is its unappealing Writing. Jean-Christophe Castelli's Screenplay, which is based on the novel by the same name by Ben Fountain, trembles. Billy Lynn's struggle in the war zone & the after effects once he returns home, are barely engaging. The Writing doesn't hold you or move, unfortunately! Ang Lee isn't in form this time around. His Direction leaves a lot to be desired. Cinematography & Editing are fine. Art & Costume Design are classy.Performance-Wise: Joe Alwyn as Billy Lynn, is the sole saving grace. He delivers an excellent performance from start to end. He has the potential to go places, given the right scripts. Kristen Stewart as Billy's older sister, tries to make the most out of her limited role. Chris Tucker is okay, while Steve Martin is wasted. And Vin Diesel is as usual. On the whole, 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' is a poor show.
Screen_Blitz The politics of war are incredibly complex, and the human cost is disturbingly high. There are no wonder why those who give up their lives to fight oversea are honored with great dignity. But the big question in this war drama directed by Oscar Winner Ang Lee is: Are we honoring these soldiers the right way? That is an idea that this film takes a dive in, but not with enough impact. Lee's approach to the absorbing topic is too shallow of emotional touch. The greatest accolade Lee acquires in this picture is allowing it to shine with a unique visual innovation, and that is shooting the film with an unheard-of frame rate of 120 FPS to capture the immense atmosphere of the war sequences. It is a technological achievement that powerfully shows how far Hollywood has advanced in technological. Seeing this movie at a theater with an unusual frame rate that high is an alarmingly tough get as there are only six theaters around the globe that include this, with only two of these theaters planted in the United States. Set in 2004, this follows 19-year old Billy Lynn (played by Joe Alwyn), an Army specialist returning home from active duty in Iraq with his fellow squad members. On the day of a Thanksgiving home game at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, Billy, honored as a hero for his duty, and his squad members are brought together on a victory tour during the halftime show. During the tour, Billy is hit with flashbacks of the tragedies that occurred during the battle in Iraq including the death of his friend Staff Sergeant Shroom (played by Vin Diesel) as opposed to the American citizens fantasized perceptions of what they think happened over there. Along the way, he finds his heroism manipulated by film producers Norm (played by Steve Martin) and Albert (played by Chris Tucker) who are trying to land a movie deal out of the events that squadron's faced.Based on the novel by Ben Fountain, this drama capitalizes on themes of patriotism and honor, and opens light on social issues that run between the grim realities of war and the distorted views of active combat by citizens back at home. The primary concern here deals with home civilians including the media exploiting the heroism soldiers acquire during active duty overseas, simply for our own personal gain. As disconcerting as it is, one thing this film proves is that unless you have been in active combat, you have little or no idea of what it is realistically feels like being in active combat overseas. Director Ang Lee makes an engaging point out of this concept. But alongside, the film also introduces these contradictions on how soldiers are celebrated by citizens for their active duty, yet people all over America continue to disdain war as an unnecessary bargain; an idea that the story never fully explores. From there on, the story slips into a jumbled mess and offers little emotional touch to the point where viewers are left with no impact. The film's emotional highpoints stand during the flashbacks of the title character and his squad fighting in Iraq which are powerfully shot and executed in authenticity. It's too bad that these scenes only make up a small portion of the near-two- hour runtime, while the majority the picture follows Billy and his squadron walking through the stadium during the halftime show with Destiny's Child performing and fireworks going off. If this manages to wring anything out of the story's framework other than its absorbing ideas, it is the performances, particularly Joe Alwyn as Billy and Kristen Stewart as his older sister, given the opportunity to flex her acting muscles. The rest of the cast offer some good on screen presences, operating with a sense of cynicism and humility. Looking for something Oscar- worthy though, you are probably better off looking elsewhere.Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a shallow war drama that fails to arrest viewers with its timely themes and Ang Lee's scattershot approach to an otherwise thoughtful examination of its eponymous character versus America's fantasized perceptions of war. Although the final product is disappointingly forgettable, some may admire Ang Lee's effort on embracing the film with his visual innovation. However, its a technological effort that is too early to introduce in major theaters at this point.
Reno Rangan After giving the career best, the director Ang Lee returned with this which is quite a long gap for him between the films. He has fallen back to the average, like usual whenever he gives a masterpiece. Most directors do that. This film was adapted from the book of the same name. It was not a full fledged war film. It has soldiers, but one day event theme where they are on the short break to homeland to participate in the felicitation programme for their victory.The story closely focused on the young soldier, Billy, Lynn. He was the centre of the event, a war hero. During his stay, he recalls the original event. What really happened and what else he could have done. Apart from that, enjoying the day with a game from the stadium, dance, musics and many more. Meeting family has a sub-plot that reveals about his choice to join the army. Overall, a memorable day with happy and sad incidents.So my first thought in the initial stage was like it is another film similar to the 2009's 'The Messenger'. No, it was not. It was completely different than anything I've seen so far. Refreshing, but not captivating. If you are okay with simple, yet want a feel strong, this is it. It is kind of like mixed result film. Great casting and strong performances. Wonderful debute for the lead actor.On the other side, mix of colourful, full of music, emotional, romantic, thrilling presentation. A bit Americanised, like the film events and the patriotism. So, a much better suitable film for the domestic audience than the rest of the world, perhaps excluding western world. Even though, watching it once is no harm or not bad.7/10
Brian A. Schaaf First, the photography in this, having the camera bounce back and forth from 3d person to first person views, really made the story hard to watch as it kept changing perspectives in the worst times, too frequently, and in a way that made everyone looking at the camera (even GREAT actors like Steve Martin) look like they were really straining to get through the script.So, the script - the idea of the soldiers touring the nation on a public affairs trips to get support for the overseas war, isn't a bad idea. BUT this focused way too much on the soldiers' trying to SELL their story to Hollywood and others, so they can make a movie based on them and each of the soldiers get money.This movie is supposed to be about the internal struggles going on with Billy, but the script really went far off base from that and just has you all over the place, mostly focusing on the soldiers trying to make money off of their military service, the troops' sergeant that is really REALLY over-acting in trying to act like their sergeant and negotiator for more money for them all, and only a little bit focusing on Billy and his mental struggles.The struggles are highlighted a LITTLE, very fragmented throughout the movie, with bouncing us between present day on their publicity tour and to the past with fragments of his deployment and coming home with a family that is worried about him and a sister, played by an actress that STILL cannot seem to every find an ounce of emotion to project, trying to convince him to go AWOL, just to get some Mental Health help. But again - the movie is MORE about these guys making money off of their story sold to the movies...A 4 rating was generous, I think, and only because I recognize the ATTEMPT to tell a story about one of our troops coming home and facing internal struggle - but really, if I wanted to rate the movie based on what it was supposed to be about - it would be a big zero. POORLY done, nightmare photography skills, really really bad script and acting and fragmented script bouncing between many segments of the story with a WAY OVER THE TOP, unreal cheesy and very unrealistic ending that would made every one of us Veterans looking at it and all saying, "Oh please....!" and being disgusted by the entire time just wasted watching this.