Fort Bliss is a 2014 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed and written by

Claudia Myers Claudia Myers is an American screenwriter, director and producer. In addition, she is an Associate Professor of Film and Media at American University's School of Communication. Early life Myers received an M.F.A from Columbia University's Sc ...

, a military-based drama set on

Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...

. The film stars

Michelle Monaghan Michelle Lynn Monaghan ( ; born March 23, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her starring roles in ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (2005), ''Gone Baby Gone'' (2007), ''Made of Honor'' (2008), ''Eagle Eye'' (2008), ''Trucker'' (2008), ''Source ...

Ron Livingston Ronald Joseph Livingston (born June 5, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for playing Peter Gibbons in the 1999 film ''Office Space'' and Captain Lewis Nixon III in the 2001 miniseries '' Band of Brothers.'' Livingston's other roles include ...

Pablo Schreiber Pablo Tell Schreiber (born April 26, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his stage work and for portraying Nick Sobotka on ''The Wire'' (2003), William Lewis on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2013–2014), Mad Swe ...

Emmanuelle Chriqui Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui ( ; born 10 December 1975) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her performance on HBO's ''Entourage'' as Sloan McQuewick, Claire Bonner in '' Snow Day'', Dalia in ''You Don't Mess with the Zohan'', Lorelei Mar ...

and

Dash Mihok Dashiell Raymond Mihok (; born May 24, 1974) is an American actor and director best known for playing Brendan "Bunchy" Donovan in the Showtime drama ''Ray Donovan''. Early life Mihok was born in New York City, the son of theater actors Andrea Mi ...

Premise

After returning home from an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.

Cast

as Maggie Swann *

as Richard *

as Staff Sergeant Donovan *

as Alma *

as Staff Sergeant Malcolm * Freddy Rodriguez as Cpt. Garver *

Gbenga Akinnagbe Olugbenga Enitan Temitope Akinnagbe ( ; born 12 December 1978) is an American actor and writer, best known for his roles as Chris Partlow on the HBO series ''The Wire'' and as Larry Brown on the HBO series '' The Deuce''. Early life Akinnagbe ...

as Sgt. Butcher * John Savage as Mike Swann *

Manolo Cardona Manuel "Manolo" Julián Cardona Molano (born April 25, 1977) is a Colombian actor. Personal life Cardona was born in Popayán, Cauca, Colombia on April 25, 1977. At the age of seven, Cardona's family nicknamed him "Manolo," which later becam ...

as Luis *

Juan Gabriel Pareja Juan Gabriel Pareja (born December 24, 1978) is an American actor. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, to parents who immigrated from Colombia, Pareja is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Pareja's film credits h ...

as Javier *

Drew Garrett Drew Garrett Nelson (born April 21, 1989) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Michael Corinthos from 2009–10 in the soap opera ''General Hospital'', for which he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. Early life and education ...

as SPC Cook
Jacob Browne
as 1st Sgt. Jeff Killens * Fahim Fazli as Afghan Driver *

Oakes Fegley Oakes Tonne Fegley (; born November 11, 2004) is an American actor. He has starred in '' Pete's Dragon'' (2016), '' Wonderstruck'' (2017), '' The Goldfinch'' (2019), ''The War with Grandpa'' (2020), and ''The Fabelmans'' (2022). Early life and ...

as Paul Swann (son)

Production

Casting

In October 2011

was added to the cast to play the lead character. On April 5, 2012

signed on to star opposite Monaghan.

Filming

Filming began in September 2012 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and later moved to

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

Premiere

''Fort Bliss'' premiered on September 11, 2014 at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles, CA. The premiere was hosted by the organization Veterans in Film and Television.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * 2014 films Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in El Paso, Texas Films shot in New Mexico Films set in Afghanistan 2014 drama films American drama films Films about the United States Army Films about mother–son relationships Films about veterans

Film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{2010s-drama-film-stub