Introduction

Taking Chance is a 2009 American historical drama television film directed by Ross Katz.

It is based upon the experiences of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl (played by Kevin Bacon), who escorted the body of a fallen Marine, Private First Class Chance Phelps (posthumously promoted to lance corporal), back to his hometown from the Iraq War.

The film was selected for showing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and premiered on HBO on 21 February 2009.

Outline

In April 2004, casualties mount in Iraq. At Quantico, choices focus on increasing troop strength or only replacing casualties.

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl crunches numbers. Stung by his superior’s rejection of his recommendation because he lacks recent combat experience, Strobl volunteers for escort duty, accompanying the remains Private First Class Chance Phelps, killed at 19.

From Dover to Philadelphia by hearse, from there to Minneapolis and on to Billings by plane, and then by car to Phelps’ Wyoming home – person after person pays respects.

Kind words, small gifts, and gratitude are given Strobl to deliver to the family on this soul-searching journey.

What are his own discoveries?

Trivia & Goofs

• The Defense Department had banned virtually all media coverage of deceased vets returning home since the 1991 Gulf War until April 2009. But the military offered advice and assistance, providing Taking Chance’s film crew with a rarely viewed, but painstakingly accurate account of the care and protocol bestowed upon the nation’s fallen warriors.
• Lieutenant Colonel Mike Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran, says he decided against another combat tour largely because of his young family. But he was conflicted, and joined the many military personnel who volunteered for escort duty as Iraqi war deaths escalated. Strobl’s week-long trip accompanying Phelps’ body from a Delaware military mortuary to burial in Wyoming, provides Taking Chance’s poignant emotional context. Strobl shared his twenty-page journal of the trip with friends and co-workers, and it eventually spread virally to military blogs and the media. It was quickly green-lit for filming after surfacing at HBO, which has become a major outlet for war-related programming, both documentary and dramatised, with miniseries and films such as Generation Kill (2008), Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq (2006), Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery (2008), and Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq (2004).
• The film bypassed movie theatres, going straight to HBO, even though it was not actually made for television.
• This is the second movie Kevin Bacon has played a US Marine. He played a JAG Marine officer in A Few Good Men (1992).

Production & Filming Details

• Director: Ross Katz.
• Producers: Ross Katz, Brad Krevoy, Cathy Wischner-Sola, and Willian Teitler.
• Writer: Ross Katz.
• Music: Marcelo Zarvos.
• Cinematography: Alar Kivilo.
• Editors: Lee Percy and Brian A. Kates.
• Production: HBO Films.
• Distribution: HBO Films.
• Release Date: 16 January 2009 (Sundance), 21 February 2009 (US).
• Running time: 77 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

YouTube Link