Taking Chance
Period. This is the ultimate Memorial Day movie. If you haven’t seen it, you must.
I whole heartedly agree and I also highly recommend “Taking Chance”. I purchased it on Amazon Prime video several years ago after having first watched in on HBO, adding it to my video library so I can watch it whenever I want and I have watched it every Memorial Day since. After watching it again this weekend, I got an email from Amazon asking to rate and review. This is what I wrote:
Recommended Viewing for Memorial Day
Based on the journal of Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, it dramatizes his journey and the people he meets along the way as he volunteers for military escort service taking PFC Chance Phelps from Dover AFB all the home for his funeral in Wyoming. The movie is not political, is never peachy, but it is respectful, appropriately understated and extremely moving. Kevin Bacon was surprisingly well cast in the role of Lt. Col Strobl. All of the cast did an outstanding job. I watch Taking Chance every Memorial Day since it came out and am always moved to tears. While my father, a WWII vet came home, many of his comrades in arms didn’t and I’m sure if he had lived to see this film, he’d be moved to tears as well.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgoWMkJw11c
Selected clips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB3Ds-ZhJhc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8O_MWm8K1k
The real life Lt. Col. Michael Strobl (USMC) - PBS "America at a Crossroads" (2007) – Narration by Robert Duval
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUfpWf45faU
There were so many outstanding scenes in this movie.
Of many that stand out, one is on the flight from Philly to Minneapolis, a flight attendant who learns Lt. Col. Strobl is escorting a fallen Marine, comes up to him and hands him a Crucifix, saying “I want you to have this”. Later when Lt. Col. Strobl meets Chance’s parents and step parents and transferring to them his personal effects, he gives Chance’s mother the Crucifix, telling her that a flight attendant gave it to him but that he thought it was really meant for her to have. At the burial she places it on top of the coffin along with the Vietnam War metals belonging to his father that he also places on top of the casket. (sniff)
Another is where a young woman is seated next to Lt. Col. Strobl before their flight takes off from Minneapolis to Billings and she starts texting on her phone - “I’m sitting next to a HOT soldier” and he inadvertently sees it and corrects her “Actually, it's Marine.” The both laugh and she offers to share her magazines with him. But when they land the pilot announces there is a military escort on board and everyone is to remain seated while the escort debarks the plane. Strobl gets up and the young woman says “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know” and he smiles and thanks her for being such good company. She and others on the flight stand silently on the tarmac as the coffin is removed from the plane and loaded into a hearse. It was such a tender moment.
The other is the scene, the night before the funeral, Lt. Col. Strobl is invited to come to the local VFW Hall for some beers and to celebrate PFC Phelps’ life. One of the people there is a Marine who served with Phelps and was with him when he was killed and talked about what a great guy he was and how he died, a hero. As they are leaving, there is a very moving exchange between Strobl and a Korean War vet. Although Strobl served in Desert Storm and had seen some action, he is feeling guilt (survivor’s guilt) over taking a desk job because he wanted to be home with his wife and children:
LtCol Mike Strobl: I stayed home. I was trained to fight. If I'm not over there, what am I? Those guys, guys like Chance... they're Marines.
Charlie Fitts: And you think you're not? Want to be with your family every night - you think you have to justify that? You'd better stop right there, sir. You've brought Chance home. You're his witness now. Without a witness, they just disappear.
And that is what Memorial Day is really about. Being a witness and not letting our fallen service members who made the supreme sacrifice disappear.