ArtsEtc.

‘Boys Don’t Cry’ director’s ‘pierce’

Kimberly Peirce is an intimidating woman.

For starters, the petite director is insanely intelligent. Throughout an hourlong Q-and-A session following a recent Overture Center screening of her upcoming film "Stop Loss," Peirce fluently used words most of the attendees probably didn't know existed.

But Peirce has more than an academic's gift for analysis: Her 1999 hit "Boys Don't Cry," the heart-wrenching tale that illuminated the life and murder of transgendered teen Brandon Teena and garnered Hillary Swank a Best Actress Oscar win, was but a graduate thesis project at Columbia University for which Peirce personally spent five years researching. She also co-writes every one of her scripts, too.

But perhaps the most intimidating aspect about Kimberly Peirce is that, when she speaks, she looks right at you. What's most striking, however, is that she not only looks at you, she actually seems to look right into you. And this — her ability to get to the hearts of others — is what has made Peirce a wildly successful Hollywood director.

On her newest film, Peirce uses this ability to capture the spirits of three young men whose lives have been forever altered by the horrors of war. Her insight into their conflicted lives has a rare depth, making the drama of "Stop-Loss" intense, yet completely relatable.

The film, Peirce's second feature-length directorial endeavor, closely follows the story of Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe, "Breach"), an American soldier who has just finished his tour of duty in Iraq. He soon learns he will be forced to return to the war-ravaged country because of the United States' Stop-Loss policy, which orders soldiers back to the field of combat after their military contracts have expired. The film, which focuses primarily on King's journey to combat this policy, also expresses the struggle of the military veteran's friends Steve (Channing Tatum, "Step Up") and Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "The Lookout") to stay afloat in their Texas hometown that now seems more foreign to them than the deserts of Iraq because of their experiences in combat.

Despite seeming to fit the formula for an anti-war film, "Stop Loss" projects a completely war-neutral tone. Not once does the director attempt to venture into anti-Bush or anti-soldier territory. In fact, because "Stop-Loss" utilizes actual soldiers' videos from the warfront, the film seems to support soldiers' war-time struggles, both on and off the battlefield.

"I think it's a patriotic movie," explained Peirce in the Q-and-A session at the Nov. 14 screening. "I don't think it's like, 'Let's go to war.' I think it's like, 'Let's be honorable people; let's defend our country.'"

But the film's guarded sense of patriotism may also be because Peirce's brother, whose viewings of these war-time "home" videos inspired the film's docu-drama tone, is a veteran of the Iraq war.

"I had a brother fighting. The last thing I would want to do is dishonor him."

Although her brother's service in the Iraq war offered inspiration for the film, Peirce's interviews with countless Iraq war veterans provided the workings for the script, shedding light on issues soldiers were facing, including the controversial Stop-Loss policy. This, Peirce said in a sit-down interview with The Badger Herald, inspired the perfect framework on which to base the struggles of Sgt. King and other soldiers.

"[Stop-loss] was turning people who had been patriotic, who had done their time, who had been war heroes. It was giving them the biggest challenge ever."

But, as the investigation into the story continued, Peirce said "'Stop-Loss' ended up representing more than just the American soldier. It was very much that what stop-loss was doing, keeping us over there, recycling people who shouldn't have been going back, well, that was every American's feeling."

"So, in many ways," she added, "'Stop-Loss' was the story of these 81,000 soldiers. It was the story of Brandon, and then it was the story of America."

Despite the concept's representation of America and its desires, Peirce still isn't afraid to create an ending that may be unsatisfying to most viewers. The director says a happy ending just wasn't honest for Sgt. King, a character who she spent countless hours researching and crafting.

"I've spent a long time thinking about what would be the appropriate ending. And, generally … whenever you're working on a character, what you try to do is get to the inside of that character. What's his fundamental life need? What's driving him through the course of his life?" She added, "It's self-actualization. I think that's what you try to bring a character back to. We've been doing what a character has to do."

Intimidation aside, Kimberly Peirce's directorial talent and integrity are evident in every frame, line and motion of "Stop-Loss." She doesn't try to change the public's mind about soldiers, the war or even the president. Instead, "Stop-Loss" allows the characters' inner conflicts to speak for themselves — and Peirce's intelligence, ambition and keen insight are apparent the entire time.