Day Zero

Day zero approaches
What if the draft were reinstated, and the young men of the United States suddenly forced to join the army, fight, and perhaps die -- without any free choice?

Thankfully, that hasn't happened just yet, and hopefully it won't anytime soon. But "Day Zero" takes a hard, sometimes frightening look at three young men who face that very ordeal. Instead of pompous politics or big war stories, it's an intimate, visceral experience that seems more interested in the "ordinary guys" than in the war itself.

In the near future, terrorists have struck again, this time attacking the West Coast -- and in response, the United States has reactivated the draft. All males between eighteen and thirty-five have to sign up for army duty in one month. This includes three friends: street smart cabbie Dixon (Jon Bernthal), wealthy young lawyer George (Chris Klein), and fragile writer Aaron (Elijah Wood).

In the month that follows, all three are struggling -- George wants to...

What if the Draft were Reinstated?
The Draft as a means for supplying the armed forces with manpower ended with the Vietnam War. DAY ZERO is a thought provoking film that raises the question of how today's youth would respond were the Draft reinstated as a result of the ever-growing Iraq War. Writer Robert Malkani and director Bryan Gunnar Cole respond to the question by creating three characters, long time friends, but each with a different response to the forced servitude in a wartime situation. As with any film dealing with controversial subject matter there are ideas presented that will disturb just about everyone no matter their stance on compulsive servitude, and it is that aspect that makes this film work so well in jolting our thinking.

The time is New York, now, and the media has just announced the reinstatement of the Draft to cope with the drained national volunteer army. Three friends receive their draft notices simultaneously: successful lawyer George Rifkin (Chris Klein) whose marriage to a...

Best Elijah Wood Performance to Date
It's 30 days before DAY ZERO, when three friends are to be drafted into the army during the raging war in Iraq. They react to the news and somehow come to terms with reality. On this simple (even thin) premise, Bryan Cole crafts a well balanced 90 minutes, which manages to cloud a specific or biased point-of-view. Sure, there's anti-war clambering and patriotic posturing. There's plenty of flag waving and flag burning, but this film is not about the draft or serving one's country. As a reviewer who has already been drafted to face a war (in Viet-nam) and had to grapple with decisions that would ultimately shape the remainder of my life, I know this film is about "the inner self"--the draft being the catalyst and the reactions mere symptoms to the rumbling of the human spirit or the lack there of.

The three stars carry the film a long way and beyond. Chris Klein as George Rifkin represents the majority view, that the draft is a life interrupter. One never gets the impression...

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