The Last Full Measure

Director: Todd Robinson
Year Released: 2019
Rating: 1.5

Clint Eastwood didn't direct this one, but some of his recent output had to have influenced it: conceited attorney Huffman (Sebastian Stan) gets his stone heart melted when he's given a case to recommend Airman William "Pits" Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine), who was killed in the Vietnam War trying to save his fellow soldiers, for a posthumous Medal of Honor, meeting those that served with him (Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda, William Hurt).  Let me just be very clear about these two points right away: (1.) what Pits did was incredibly brave and (2.) the struggles of Veterans are very real (and very troubling), except the treatment of both is over-the-top (Fonda's character in particular) and the movie is Super Patriotic and Preachy to an alienating degree (there is little emotional payout ... it just ends the way it's expected to).  Even after the Medal is conferred, there's a lot of residual trauma to go around ... and you know what Banksy said about people who like waving flags.