Taking Chance

  Recently in our history class we watched the movie “Taking Chance”   that grabbed
my heart in the first few minutes like no other film I’ve seen recently.  This movie quickly became one of my favorites, it truly brought me to tears.

     “Taking Chance” is a movie based on real-life events. This movie has no plot, no outward dramatic conflict.  The movie is about Lt Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort officer, who accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps , back to his hometown. Chance was killed in Iraq while protecting his friends from enemy fire. Michael Strobl says goodbye to his wife and children and embarks on the journey.

     The filmmakers show us in striking detail many of the little rituals that are part of the larger procedure, from the gentle cleansing of the dead man’s fingers to the fastening of a bar-code tag to the black body bag.

     Rendering honor is one of the film's themes, and also one of its singular accomplishments. 

     Along the way, we saw the respect, the dignity, and the honor rightly given to fallen heroes. One of the good points of the movie is that not only people from military showed respect to killed hero but also all citizens not matter their age, sex or race.

     The movie teaches us enormous respect for the military uniform. It teaches us to love and honor those young men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us. They give their lives to make us live in peaceful and safe environment. The only thing that we can give them back is the love and enormous respect.

     The movie shows the incredible gift that goes back to those who serve others without  recompense. The way Michael Strobl showed such honor and the enormous respect showed by ordinary Americans for his service and the dead soldier he was escorting was deeply touching.

     19-year-old Chance who was killed on the war is only example from thousands of victims. I think that all of us have stories of people who didn’t come back from war. They are going to war not even thinking about their own lives.

     How many of us would leave their families at the age of 19 and would join the army? I’m sure that not all of us would be brave and patriot enough to endanger our own lives to serve and make other people, living in our country, live under peaceful sky. But now we live in peace and we have to respect and honor them who make that peace for us. We should not honor only those who died in war but also those who now serve on army and put their life in danger to protect us.

     I think that one of the reasons that this movie touched me deeply is dangerous situation in my country’s border. 18-year-old boys are joining the army knowing about the forthcoming danger. Not only killed solders’ families mourn for their lost but the whole nation. Every soldier means so much for us and we respect and honor them all.

     Seeing people with military uniform make fill enormous respect. They expose themselves to inconceivable dangers under conditions of enormous hardship and fight because they want to keep the country safe. We owe them respect and gratitude - even if we think the wars they’re asked to fight are sometimes wrong.

     When his own mission is over, Michael Strobl says "I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died, but today, I miss him." Just like that we don’t know all of the soldiers who died for us be it shouldn’t prevent us to respect and miss them. 
Click here to read the essay that inspired the movie.