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Handsome Ben Foster and good ol’ boy Woody Harrelson are getting rave reviews as U.S. Army casualty notification officers in the new film, “The Messenger.” Also turning heads is Oren Moverman, the independent flick’s Israeli-born writer/director.
Mr. Moverman, who is now based in New York, told j.weekly.com that his debut feature about those officers whose jobs involve delivering news to relatives that a loved one has died derives somewhat from his service in the Israel Defense Forces.
“These are different countries, different wars, different eras, different types of terrorism, everything’s different. But fundamentally, I felt that I could communicate to the actors what it meant to be a soldier,” he said. “To communicate with the film the emotional landscape of fear and anger and guilt and the inability to express a lot of the experiences you go through in combat — that stuff I felt very comfortable with.”
Mr. Moverman’s best-known previous credit is collaborating on the screenplay for “I’m Not There,” the film that examined the life, times and mythology of Bob Dylan.
Mr. Moverman, 43, noted that “The Messenger,” which also stars Jena Malone and Samantha Morton, was well-received at the Jerusalem Film Festival. “Partially, they see me as a representative of Israel, because that’s what happens with anyone Israeli who works outside the country and does OK,” he said. “But partially, they identified with what the movie was about, and they felt it was very much about them.”
Mr. Moverman denied that “The Messenger” carries a political message. “What we wanted to do was make a film that’s not political, that’s not pro-war or anti-war but in war,” he said. “If the movie becomes political, then it’s part of an argument. And being Israeli, I’ve had my healthy share of experience in arguments.”
So, nu, what does he view as “The Messenger’s” message? “Life has pain,” Mr. Moverman said. “There’s grief, there’s loss, and the question is, how do you get back to being alive? You do it through very, very simple mechanisms, such as love and friendship and shared emotions and shared experiences.”