MANY TEARS FALL IN THE DRY LAND
Films featuring returning veterans from the Iraq War might have been played by professional actors, but greater impact can come from nonprofessionals. The Dry Land, directed by Ryan Piers Williams, is one of the latter. Although the action begins with the arrival of James (played by Ryan O’Nan) at the El Paso Airport from a tour of duty in Iraq, the impact of earlier events is crucial. James, the son of a Vietnam vet who was a troubled father, volunteers for the army rather than working in the slaughterhouse of his wife’s father, David Valdez (played by Benito Martínez). Before James returns from duty for medical reasons, his wife Sara (played by America Ferrera) is evidently led to believe that he will face adjustment problems, but she is unprepared when he does. James’s best civilian friends, similarly, bug him about his military experience to the breaking point. At the same time, he is eager to learn what really happened, as he blanked out during a rocket attack. The result is that James cracks up, his wife separates, he gets drunk, and eventually the police pursue him for reckless driving. The point of the film appears to be that those who volunteer for the army are often not prepared to survive PTSD psychologically, in part because their civilian lives are unfulfilling but also due to an inability of the armed services to provide proper post-service counseling. MH