Countdown to Thirteen: The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall (2008)

While this TV movie has some things going for it, it ultimately had a hard time keeping my attention.  I found myself more interested in the themes the film touched on but kept sort of skirting around.

Based on a true story, the Hurndall family is devastated when they learn that their son Tom, a British photo-journalism student volunteering in Gaza, has been shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.  His parents and siblings fly out to Israel, both to see Tom in the hospital before he succumbs to his injuries and to get an account of what happened.  At every turn, however, government and military authorities seem bound on thwarting them, throwing up red tape and offering half-explanations that don’t match what little they know.  Tom’s father Anthony tries to conduct his own investigation into discovering the truth of what happened to his son.

The elephant in the room is of course that fact that this is about a young white European who was a shot, his white European family grieving and struggling to find answers.  There are references to how many Palestinian families go through exactly the same tragedy, and Tom’s mother Jocelyn notes that Tom was shot trying to rescue young children, asking why snipers were firing at children in the first place.  There’s an undercurrent of an idea that, since the Hurndalls are British, they shouldn’t expect this sort of treatment.  But these are only references and undercurrents, and even as Anthony digs deeper and Tom’s family grieves, I can’t help wondering why it’s their story we’re seeing rather than someone else’s.

I want to mention that I’m not speaking against the Hurndalls, the real family the film is based on, at all.  A loss is a loss, and knowing that the hospitals are filled with far more Palestinian victims than British ones wouldn’t make Tom’s shooting any less painful for them.  I’m not begrudging the family their feelings at all.  It’s the focus of the filmmakers that I question.

Jodie Whittaker plays Tom’s sister Sophie.  Although she’s present in plenty of scenes, it’s a fairly small role, and she’s not given much characterization beyond between grief-stricken and bewildered.  Anyone who’s seen Broadchurch will know that Whittaker can handle this.  The film, though, asks little else of her, and most of the story falls on Anthony and Jocelyn, with Sophie and Tom’s other siblings largely in the background.

The film stars Stephen Dillane, a.k.a. Stannis from Game of Thrones, as Anthony.  No one else I’m familiar with other than Whittaker, but one of Tom’s brothers is played by Harry Treadaway, twin brother to Luke Treadaway from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Accent Watch

RP.

Recommend?

In General – I don’t think so.  I wouldn’t say it’s a bad film, but it doesn’t really win me over.

Jodie Whittaker – Naw.  The part is too small, and besides the accent, it’s nothing you can’t see her do on Broadchurch.

Warnings

War violence, language, and strong thematic elements.