George Carlin once delivered an intense monologue on the dehumanizing power of euphemisms, using as his case study how the terse World War I phrase “shell shock” morphed to “battle fatigue,” “operational exhaustion” and the clinical-sounding term we use now, “post-traumatic stress disorder.”
It’s PTSD, and the way we and the government that’s supposed to represent us are derelict in how we treat our combat veterans, that fuels the emotion of “Thank You for Your Service,” a powerful, cathartic drama based on the real stories of Iraq War soldiers returning home.
Adapting David Finkel’s best-selling book, screenwriter and first-time director Jason Hall focuses on four soldiers who fought in the same battalion in Baghdad.