Haggis' Crash Course

Paul Haggis is a real Hollywood multi-tasker.

After cutting his scriptwriting teeth on American TV offerings ranging from The Love Boat to Diff'rent Strokes, he earned his directing spurs with Due South and then took the big screen by storm with the gritty social drama Crash.

The movie, which featured several mesmerising story strands against a backdrop of an imploding LA, went on to land Haggis a best screenplay Oscar was well as the accolade of best picture.

The 55-year-old film-maker was on a roll and followed his success up with the screenplay for Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby and World War II drama Flags of Our Fathers. He was also drafted in to add some zest to the script for Casino Royale, the critically-acclaimed debut for Daniel Craig in the 007 role.

However, he faces his toughest call yet with The Valley of Elah, a no-holds barred condemnation of the American policy in Iraq. Bleak and unforgiving, it follows the desperate efforts of father Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to find out how his Iraq veteran son Mike (John Tucker) was found dead at the side of the road in New Mexico.

"In Iraq it's like having a corpse on the ground - do you keep stabbing it or not," Haggis tells Skymovies.com. "We're not doing anything good there. We saw what happened in Vietnam when we tried to withdraw with honour and how many more thousands of people died because of that.

Hollywood films that have been remotely critical of US foreign policy have always fared badly, leading to accusations of disloyalty or worse. And Into The Valley of Elah has suffered a rough ride.

"In America it did very poorly," admits Haggis. " A friend of mine said it's hard to talk about people's scars... but it's much more difficult to talk about an open wound. America's bleeding right now. It's got an open wound in its chest and here I am poking around in there. It's quite understandable.

The film raises controversial questions about the psychological effects of the war in Iraq on young men and women who are not really emotionally prepared for the reception they get in a country that is utterly foreign to them.

"It's an American tragedy," Haggis continues. " I think audiences are mostly interested in American tales. They aren't really ready to empathise with Iraqi civilians because we don't see them, we don't know anything about them. If we look at them through the eyes of (American) men or women who see so many Iraqi dead and come home shattered we can empathise with the dead.

"I was less interested in who killed the character of Mike than in who was responsible for the death. That's why the film's framed as a murder mystery but about three-quarters of the way through it's not that at all. It's more of a moralist play than a murder mystery.

Ironically, unlike the politicians, the movie played well to members of the armed forces.

"Some of them said this is my experience," said Haggis. "Some said this is not my experience but it did happen to the man or woman who was stood beside me. Things are changing but it's very difficult to look at things we've done. It's easier for us to point a finger and blame someone.

Bearing in mind the politically flammable subject matter Haggis - despite the enormous success of Crash and his acclaimed work for Eastwood - still found it incredibly difficult to source film funding.

"I took it around Hollywood for seven or eight month, to all the studios. No-one wanted to do it. So I took it to Clint because I figured I needed some clout and asked for his help. He's been a great friend. He rang me back and said that's top material.

I said It's the truth about what's happening and he said I want to help you get it made. We got a small budget and we had to figure out a way of shooting it. I wanted to shoot in three locations: in New Mexico for the majority of the film, Tennessee for Hank's home and I wanted some place that looked like Baghdad so Morrocco was the choice. The great expense was moving from one location to the next.

Compared to getting the project off the ground, casting was relatively simple. Charlize Theron, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wurnos in Monster, plays dustbowl cop Emily Saunders and Tommy Lee Jones took on the part of Vietnam vet and former military policeman Hank Deerfield.

"I'd been chasing Charlize for two or three years. I'd bump into her at awards shows and lunches and things. I'd tell her about the story and she'd say 'yes, that's great. But shut up and call me when it's done'. I sent her the script on a Wednesday and she called me on the Wednesday night. She was in.

I sat down with Clint and we talked about who we'd want and we both said Tommy Lee Jones. He'd be brilliant. I'd seen him in No Country For Old Men It's great to see that in an actor's career when they get a roll, get a couple of films that they can shine in."

After its poor reception in the United States, Haggis feels buoyed by the critical acclaim in Europe...but it's time to move on. After his valuable input into Casino Royale he's been brought back for Bond 22 with director Marc Forster at the helm.

"It's great to switch to something like Bond," says Haggis. "I just treat him the same was as I would do any of my protagonists. You're exploring characters but you're asking really tough questions.

What's it like to be an assassin? Really, truly?. I don't believe that if you shoot a laser at someone and they explode with no blood and than you say some quip and then go off and have sex with some woman. I don't believe it's like that.

"I think you kill someone with a knife and you get blood all over you and you pretend it doesn't effect you and it does. That's what we all try to bring to Bond. With Casino Royale the film-makers decided to go in a new direction and I had to execute it the best I can.