EarDelightBase Waste of Money.

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

rooprect In the first 20 minutes we get a graphic scene of a cow being shot through the head. Blood and mucus pour out her nose as she exhales her last breath. It's real (no props, cgi or animatronics). American Humane Association inspectors were not on hand because the production company never informed them of the scene (you can verify this at the AHA film rating website).It may not make a difference to most viewers, but if you don't support films with actual animal killings & cruelty, steer clear of this one. I hear there's a later scene of a rabbit being shot, but I didn't bother sticking around for that. There are many reasons to kill, but entertainment is not one of them.

twilliams76 A ponderous message-movie that is pretty-much all drama (there is very little "lite" here). The Dry Land is a story of an Iraq war vet returning home to rural western Texas to the loving arms of his wife (America Ferrera -- TV's "Ugly Betty", Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) only to realize he cannot make things "right" in his mind with what occurred on the other side of the world.He meets fellow soldiers and friends and tries to make peace; but the film depicts the folly of war. None of the actors do a poor job on this film and the subject matter is important. The Dry Land is a film one hates to criticize or put-down as I am afraid the criticism will be misconstrued. My problem(s) with the film are not the war or the actors on the screen ... this is simply an "average film" from an un-proved director (this is Ryan Piers Williams' first full-length production).Humans aren't made to be killing machines without something inside each of us changing. For a brief time, it felt as if this was going to be yet another retread of the Americanized version of the Danish film Brothers; but it eventually steered itself into a different direction which was good. Saying that -- there really isn't much else to discuss about this quiet film.Like it's title suggests ... the story doesn't meander like a river -- it is just all-out and flat. There is an expanse of land to look at and take in -- and that is what this film is all about. Look at war. Look at its problems. Look at its "solutions". Look at us. Look ...

gbrown-43-429177 For his first feature-length film, The Dry Land writer-director, Ryan Piers Williams, portrayed the unraveling affects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with equal measure of grit and grace. Ryan O'Nan plays James, a solider returning from the war in Iraq, with both restraint and credible volatility. Initially, the film appears to be checking off the returning warrior clichés: heartfelt airport terminal reunion, an awkward return to intimacy with the wife, reentry to a mundane job, and an alcohol fueled tussle with a smart-mouthed townie. But as James begins to wrestle with a critical missing part of his recollection of Iraq, the film makes a decidedly introspective turn toward the reality of PTSD.This Sundance-nominee was able not only to capture a certain authenticity of the returning soldier, Williams also provides a parable of brokenness, self-destruction, and the isolation of the one whose wounds are hidden to his community. As James reaches out to his Army buddies in hopes to fill in the empty parts of his memory, he only finds more brokenness among them. Many who have never worn a uniform can relate to the elusive redemption we seek from others.At my screening, there was some difference of reaction regarding the climatic final scene. Some were disappointed in the lack of Hollywood-style triumph. But as the rain poured down on the "dry land" of James' El Paso landscape, the viewer is not left without the hope of healing from trauma and despair.

stuj-894-467035 Yet another Hollywood portrayal of soldiers returning from war as a bunch of drunken psychotic screw ups. This liberal waste of film even includes references to Vietnam just to ram the point home.There isn't really a storyline in the film as it isn't necessary to make it's point. There is never any real dramatic basis for the problems with the character for which we are supposed to feel sorry so it is hard to feel anything.If you are really into this sort of thing, a better film (along the same lines) is "Brothers" which does a better job with the same basic theme.