''Taking Chance'' is a 2009 American historical drama

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

directed by

Ross Katz Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

, from a screenplay by Michael Strobl and Katz, based on the journal of the same name by Strobl, who also serves as military consultant.

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

's portrayal of Strobl in the film won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television and a

Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie The Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series is an award given by the Screen Actors Guild to honor the finest acting achievements in Miniseries or Television Movie. Winners and ...

, among other accolades. ''Taking Chance'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 16, 2009, and aired on HBO in the United States on February 21, 2009. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. At the

61st Primetime Emmy Awards The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! broadcast the Creative Arts event; both took place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on ...

, it earned ten nominations, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Bacon, and won one for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie.

Plot

The movie is based on the recollections of U.S. Marine

Lt. Col Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the army, armies, most Marine (armed services), marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use t ...

Michael Strobl, a real person, who accompanied the remains of

Lance Corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal, and is typically the lowest non-commissioned officer (NCO), usually equi ...

Chance Phelps, a Marine fatally wounded by gunfire near

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

, from

Dover Air Force Base Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. 436th AW is the host wing and runs the busiest and largest a ...

Dubois, Wyoming Dubois is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 971 at the 2010 census, but dropped to 911 in the 2020 census. The population nearly doubles in the summer with many part-time residents. While the Town of Dubois ...

in April 2004. He attended both Phelps's funeral and his memorial service, and wrote an essay about the entire experience, the emotions he felt and the people he met. It was published in the blog ''Blackfive'' on 23 April 2004 and was circulated widely on the Internet.

Cast

as Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl *

Tom Aldredge Thomas Ernest Aldredge (February 28, 1928 – July 22, 2011) was an American television, film and stage actor. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for playing the role of Shakespeare in ''Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare'' (1978). His Broadway ...

as Charlie Fitts * Nicholas Reese Art as Nate Strobl *

Blanche Baker Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956) is an American actress and filmmaker. She won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the television mini-series ''Holocaust''. Baker is known for her role as Ginny Baker in ''Sixteen Can ...

as Chris Phelps * Tom Bloom as Navy Chaplain * Guy Boyd as Gary Hargrove * James Castanien as Robert Orndoff *

Gordon Clapp Gordon Clapp (born September 24, 1948) is an American actor best known for playing Det. Greg Medavoy for all 12 seasons of the television series ''NYPD Blue'', winning an Emmy Award in 1998. Early life and education Clapp was born in North Con ...

as Tom Garrett *

Mike Colter Mike Randal Colter (born August 26, 1976) is an American actor best known for his role as Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the streaming television series ''Luke Cage'' (2016–2018), '' The Defenders'' (2017), and ''Jess ...

as MGySgt Demetry * GySgt Henry Coy as Marine Driver *

Joel de la Fuente Joel de la Fuente (born April 21, 1969) is an American actor. He first gained recognition for his role as 1st Lieutenant Paul Wang in '' Space: Above and Beyond'', and is best known for his roles as Dr. Johann Pryce in ''Hemlock Grove'', Kempeitai ...

as Ticketing Agent * Liza Colón-Zayás as Ticketing Agent *

Ann Dowd Ann Dowd (born January 30, 1956) is an American actress. She has played supporting roles in numerous films, including ''Green Card'' (1990), ''Lorenzo's Oil'' (1992), ''Philadelphia'' (1993), '' Garden State'' (2004), '' The Manchurian Candidate' ...

as Gretchen *

Tate Ellington James Tate Ellington (born April 17, 1979) is an American actor. He portrayed Aidan Hall, the best friend of Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) in the 2010 romantic drama film '' Remember Me''. Ellington starred as Oliver Hunt in ''The Elephant Kin ...

as A.V. Scott *

Noah Fleiss Noah Fleiss (born April 16, 1984) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor, making his film debut as the eponymous Sam Whitney in ''Josh and S.A.M.'' (1993). Subsequently, he played the title character in '' Joe the King'' (1999 ...

as Army Sergeant * Julian Gamble as Jeff Mack *

Enver Gjokaj Enver Leif Gjokaj ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles as Victor in the science fiction television series ''Dollhouse'' and as Daniel Sousa in '' Agent Carter'', a role he later reprised ...

as Corporal Arenz ('Sergeant' in film's dialogue) * Brendan Griffin as Major Thompson * Sgt Adam Hayes as Dover Team Leader *

Danny Hoch Daniel Hoch (born November 23, 1970) is an American actor, writer, director and performance artist. He has acted in larger roles in independent and art house movies and had a few small roles in mainstream Hollywood films, with increasing exp ...

as TSA Agent * Ruby Jerins as Olivia Strobl * Tom Kemp as Business Man *

John Bedford Lloyd John Bedford Lloyd (born January 2, 1956) is an American character actor. Life and career Lloyd was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Ann Storrs Lloyd and Edward B. Lloyd of Southport, Connecticut. His father was an architect. He has a s ...

as General Kruger *

John Magaro John Robert Magaro (born February 16, 1983) is an American actor. He starred in '' Not Fade Away'' (2012). He also had roles in ''The Big Short'', '' Carol'' (2015) and the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'' and ''The Umbrella Academy''. ...

as Rich Brewer *

Matthew Morrison Matthew James Morrison (born October 30, 1978) is an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter, best known for his role as Will Schuester on the Fox television show '' Glee'' (2009–2015). He has starred in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadw ...

as Robert Rouse * Maximilian Osinski as Sgt Neuman *

Wolé Parks Wolé Parks (born July 27, 1982) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Dallas Griffin in the CBS daytime soap opera ''As the World Turns'', and as Sam Alexander in the Lifetime comedy-drama series ''Devious Maids''. He appeared in th ...

as Major Schott * Del Pentecost as Minneapolis Cargo Handler * Dominic Colon as Minneapolis Cargo Handler * George Rabidou as Marine First Sergeant delivering U.S. Flag to parent during funeral. * Christina Rouner as Tall Flight Attendant *

Victor Slezak Victor Slezak (born July 30, 1957) is an American stage, television and screen actor who has appeared in numerous films, including '' The Bridges of Madison County'' (1995), '' Beyond Rangoon'' (1995), ''The Devil's Own'' (1997), ''The Siege'' ...

as Sgt Mulcahy *

Felix Solis Felix Angel Solis (born September 17, 1971) is an American actor, film director, and film producer. Born on the Upper West Side and raised in Chelsea/Greenwich Village area of New York City, to parents that were both born in Puerto Rico, Felix co ...

as Philly Cargo Worker * Sarah Thompson as Annie *

Paige Turco Jean Paige Turco (born May 17, 1965) is an American actress, best known for her role as April O'Neil in '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze'' and ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III''. Other notable roles include Melanie Co ...

as Stacey Strobl * Sharon Washington as Mortuary Technician *

Julie White Julie K. White (born June 4, 1961) is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in ''The Little Dog Laughed'' in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performanc ...

as Colonel Karen Bell *

Emily Wickersham Emily Kaiser Wickersham (born April 26, 1984) is an American actress best known for her role as NCIS Special Agent Eleanor Bishop on '' NCIS''. Early life Wickersham has Austrian and Swedish (Värmland) ancestry. She was born in Kansas but ...

as Petty Officer Kelley Phelps * William Wise as Larry Hertzog *

Tom Wopat Thomas Steven Wopat (born September 9, 1951) is an American actor and singer. He first achieved fame as Lucas K. "Luke" Duke on the long-running television action/comedy series ''The Dukes of Hazzard''. Since then, Wopat has worked regularly, ...

as John Phelps * Richard Reed as Rifle detail Staff Non Commissioned Officer

Critical reception

''Taking Chance'' received generally favorable reviews. It holds a 76 out of 100 rating on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Review aggregator

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 ...

gave it a 57% rating based on reviews from 7 critics. One review from ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'', said that it "... is one of the most eloquent and socially conscious films the premium cable channel has ever presented," and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'', said "A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, ''Taking Chance'' is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making." On the other end is '' Slant Magazine'', saying "Instead of well-drawn characters or real human drama, we are presented with a military procedural on burial traditions. The film desperately wants the viewer to shed tears for its fallen hero without giving a single dramatic reason to do so." The film was the most-watched HBO original in five years, with over two million viewers on the opening night, and more than 5.5 million on re-airings. Critics often attribute this success to its apolitical nature, not directly depicting nor offering an opinion of the

. Former Secretary of Defense

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by president George W. Bush a ...

wrote in his 2014 memoir '' Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War'' that the film had an "important impact" on his decision to allow the media access to the transfer of fallen service members at

in February 2009.Gates, Robert. ''Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War''. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014). In Chapter 9: New Team, New Agenda, Old Secretary. During a White House press conference in 2017, former White House Chief of Staff and Retired Marine Corps General John F. Kelly, who was next to Chance when he was killed and is the father of First Lieutenant Robert Kelly who was killed in action in Afghanistan, recommended that the Washington press corps watch the film in order to understand the solemnity and dignity of the process of returning fallen military service members to their families.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Official website for ''Taking Chance''
on HBO
Arts of War on the Web review, February 20, 2009
* {{YouTube, o4Rl6qqPOnc, KMIR6 NBC story on PFC Chance Phelps
''Taking PFC Phelps home'', by LtCol Michael Strobl, USMC (Ret)

''You're his witness now''

Marine Corps Times ''Marine Corps Times'' (ISSN 1522-0869) is a newspaper serving active, reserve and retired United States Marine Corps personnel and their families, providing news, information and analysis as well as community and lifestyle features, educational su ...

2009 films 2009 drama films 2009 television films 2000s historical drama films American films based on actual events American historical drama films Drama films based on actual events American drama television films Films about American military personnel Films about funerals Films about the United States Marine Corps Films directed by Ross Katz Films scored by Marcelo Zarvos Films shot in California Films shot in Montana Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in Newark, New Jersey HBO Films films Iraq War films Television films based on actual events Television Academy Honors winners 2000s English-language films 2000s American films