Ross Katz Talks With YourMilitaryLife.com About the HBO Film TAKING CHANCE

Ross Katz, the director and co-writer of the HBO film TAKING CHANCE, was the guest on a very special edition of the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that Nancy Brown and I co-host. I don't usually share the recordings of our shows on this blog, but this show was so compelling that I want to share the interview.

Katz has been interviewed by many people about this film, and both Nancy and I have read several reviews as well as seen this amazing film. Yet there was one question that I didn't find the answer to anywhere: How did the producer of LOST IN TRANSLATION and IN THE BEDROOM come to have the opportunity to direct and co-write TAKING CHANCE?

I'm pleased to announce that Katz shared the answer with our listeners. And you'll want to hear his answer, which sheds light on just how committed he became to this true story.

Listen to the half-hour show now of Ross Katz talking about the HBO film TAKING CHANCE.

Warning: You may want to have some tissues nearby.

HBO Films’ TAKING CHANCE Is an Amazing Story

I’ve just had the opportunity to see HBO Films’ TAKING CHANCE before its air date of February 21st. And I’m at a loss for words.

The film is based on the true story of Marine Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl volunteering for escort duty to take home the remains of 19-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Chance Phelps.

During this overwhelming experience Lt. Colonel Strobl wrote a journal account of his escort duty. This account originally circulated via the internet, and I remember reading the account with tissues clutched in my hands. So I was prepared with an entire box of tissues for watching the film.

The film’s director Ross Katz wrote the screenplay with Michael Strobl, who is now retired from the Marine Corps, while Kevin Bacon played Lt. Colonel Strobl.

Kevin Bacon says very few words in the entire film. Yet he conveys with the minutest of facial expressions his own turbulent emotions throughout his escort duty.

The respect that Americans showed Lt. Colonel Strobl and the remains of Chance Phelps throughout the trip from Dover to Philadelphia to Minneapolis to Billings, Montana, to Dubois, Wyoming, is a compelling reminder that Americans are grateful for the sacrifices made by young men and women serving their country.

And to see the reverence afforded to the remains of fallen military personnel by the people at the Dover Port Mortuary is an incredibly moving testament to the sanctity of every person’s life.

Ross Katz, Michael Strobl and Kevin Bacon, plus all the other people who worked on this film, created a dignified tribute. You must see what they have wrought to honor our military personnel -- as well as to honor grateful Americans.

Here are Lt. Colonel Strobl’s own words:

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

New Vietnam War Movie Based on Non-Fiction Book Announced by HBO Films

The July 17^th Daily Variety announced HBO Films is developing a movie based on former CIA agent Frank Snepp’s 1999 non-fiction book IRREPARABLE HARM: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF HOW ONE AGENT TOOK ON THE AGENCY IN AN EPIC BATTLER OVER FREE SPEECH.

This is a follow-up to his 1977 non-fiction book DECENT INTERVAL: AN INSIDER’S ACCCOUNT OF SAIGON’S INDECENT END, TOLD BY THE CIA’S CHIEF STRATEGY ANALYST IN VIETNAM.

Here’s the IRREPARABLE HARM review by John J. Miller (no relation) on the book’s Amazon page (boldface mine):

Former CIA spook Frank Snepp was one of the last Americans lifted off the U.S. embassy in Saigon in 1975, at the tail end of the Vietnam War. In the days leading up to that fateful moment, he complained that the United States needed to do more to protect its intelligence assets, most of whom were left behind.

"We'd betrayed the Vietnamese who'd depended on us," writes Snepp in Irreparable Harm, "and those who worked most closely with them ... now had blood on our hands, for it was we who in our daily contacts had convinced them to trust us."

Snepp criticized this turn of events in a 1977 book, Decent Interval, and was promptly sued by the CIA because they had not given him clearance to write about his experiences.

The resulting court case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Snepp tried to defend himself on First Amendment grounds with the help of a then-unknown Harvard lawyer named Alan Dershowitz.

He ultimately lost the case, plus his money and the right to publish anything about the CIA without first receiving authorization. Irreparable Harm--which has received CIA clearance--captures all the twists and turns of Snepp's legal fight …

I find it interesting that the HBO movie will be about the legal battle against a large bureaucracy – how many such movies have we seen? – rather than about the actual story: the U.S.’s betrayal of its South Vietnamese intelligence assets.

In intelligence lingo intelligence assets means people – people with families, people who trusted you at great risk to their own lives and the lives of their families. And we left those people behind to face almost-certain death at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

How many years from now might some former CIA agent write a similar story about leaving behind our intelligence assets in Iraq and Afghanistan – to face almost-certain death?

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Vietnam War, CIA, Frank Snepp, Iraq War, Mrs. Lieutenant, fall of Saigon, HBO Films