Last night I received the privilege of joining a group at the Quantico movie theater to watch the premiere of the movie Taking Chance. This is movie about a story of Lt. Col. Michael Strobl taking Lance Corporal Chance Phelps back home after being killed in Iraq. Our kids go to school with the Strobl kids, and so my wife Pam was excited to have this opportunity to watch this early screening of this movie. The movie will be played later this month on HBO. Kevin Bacon, who plays Michael Strobl, Ross Katz – the director, and the parents of Chance Phelps were present for the showing. The theater was packed, and the emotion was sensed before the movie ever started. It was experience I will never forget. Take a look at the movie synopsis, and watch the trailer to find out more.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtmiLdzzgGE]
Movie Synopsis: In April 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC, came across the name of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, a young Marine who had been killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran with 17 years of military service, requested that he be assigned for military escort duty to accompany Chance’s remains to his family in Dubois, Wyo. Witnessing the spontaneous outpouring of support and respect for the fallen Marine – from the groundskeepers he passed along the road to the cargo handlers at the airport – Strobl was moved to capture the experience in his personal journal. His first-person account, which began as an official trip report, gives an insight into the military’s policy of providing a uniformed escort for all casualties. The story became an Internet phenomenon when it was widely circulated throughout the military community and eventually reached the mainstream media.‘Taking Chance’ chronicles one of the silent, virtually unseen journeys that takes place every day across the country, bearing witness to the fallen and all those who, literally and figuratively, carry them home. A uniquely non-political film about the war in Iraq, the film pays tribute to all of the men and women who have given their lives in military service as well as their families.
That’s really cool. I can’t wait to see this movie.
As an aside, does this mean that we’re all now officially one degree from Kevin Bacon?
Can’t wait to see the movie, just watching the trailer was emotional for me.
My husband has had the honor of escorting the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq to his family in Washington state. It was an experience that will be with him forever. I hope I get to see the movie.
HBO has three short behind-the-scenes featurettes on “Taking Chance” that my wife and I watched On Demand last night. The most interesting of the three was a peer-to-peer interview with Lt.Col. Strobl and Kevin Bacon. I recall reading at some point or another Bacon voicing his opposition to the Iraq War (making him a Hollywood rarity), but my wife observed during the interview that you could see a look of respect from Bacon to Strobl, even if he may disagree with the underlying premise and purpose for which Chance Phelps sacrificed his life.
I am pleased that Strobl was so intimately involved in telling this story, which obviously prevented it from becoming a typical “message” movie from Hollywood.
I watched Taking Chance last night. Very understated movie. I liked it. I thought Kevin Bacon did a tremendous job. The scene where Strobl is standing outside the VFW hall with the Korean War vet and told him how he felt like he wasn’t a real Marine because he wasn’t fighting in Iraq like Chance was powerful stuff.
It reminded me of my friend Guapo who a few years ago had a choice to leave the Marines and focus on the ministry we were doing here, or accept his orders to Camp Pendleton that basically guaranteed him at least one combat tour in Iraq. I remember vividly when Guapo told us that he was staying in the Marine Corps because for a few years he trained Marines at TBS to go to war, and he would have felt like he wasn’t really a Marine if he got out without actually ever going to war himself.
I watched Taking Chance last night it was a very powerful movie and very moving lets just say I cried through most of it so make sure you have a box of tissues. What a wonderful thing Lt.Col. Strobl did for that young man and what a brave young man Chance Phelps was.