The Forgotten Miles Teller War Movie On Netflix That Will Break Your Heart
Ever since Top Gun: Maverick became a runaway hit, Miles Teller has become a more popular actor than ever before. New fans wanting to scratch their Miles Teller itch shouldn’t sleep on his largely-forgotten war movie Thank You for Your Service, now streaming on Netflix. FlixPatrol reports that the film is now in Netflix’s Top 10, and there’s a reason for that: it’s a damn good film that has impressed critics and audiences alike.
While Miles Teller is best known for bringing fictional stories to life, those who watch Thank You For Your Service on Netflix will quickly discover that it’s a sober biography rather than a fictional film full of overblown adventure.
It adapts the book of the same name written by journalist David Finkel, and it focuses on what happened to veterans who return from a 15-month deployment to Iraq and try to readjust to their old lives.
We mostly follow Teller’s character, Adam Schumann, as he navigates the PTSD and survivor’s guilt he is feeling after his harrowing time in the Middle East.
At one point, Steven Spielberg was going to direct Thank You for Your Service and Daniel Day-Lewis was going to star in it.
One of the more interesting things about watching this Miles Teller film on Netflix is that he is one of the only “big” names attached to the project, with the other notable name being the controversial actor and comedian Amy Schumer.
While she does well enough in a supporting role, most of the critical attention and praise fell on Teller as well as his fellow actors Beulah Koale (who plays an Army specialist) and Haley Bennett (who plays the wife of Teller’s character, eager to help her husband in his battle against PTSD).
Long before this unconventional Miles Teller film ended up on Netflix, its initial production plans changed several times. At one point, Steven Spielberg was going to direct it and Daniel Day-Lewis was going to star in it.
Thank You For Your Service‘s Oscar-Nominated Writer
While the plans to involve Spielberg and Day-Lewis fell through, one consistent factor was that the script was written by Jason Dean Hall, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his American Sniper script.
While Hall is a veteran writer and former actor who made appearances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he had never directed a film before. But with Thank You For Your Service, he made his directorial debut, and the general consensus is that he did an amazing job.
In fact, the high quality of both his writing and directing is one of the reasons more people have been tuning in to watch Miles Teller in this very meditative war film on Netflix.
Before this Miles Teller movie appeared on Netflix, though, it had a theatrical debut. Sadly, it ended up being something of a box office bomb: against a modest budget of $20 million, the film only grossed $9 million.
Miles Teller’s 2017 war movie Thank You for Your Service, is climbing Netflix’s streaming charts.
However, critics who saw the film were quite impressed: the movie currently has a 77 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a much higher ranking than the recent blockbuster film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It also has an audience score of 73 percent, showcasing that critics and audiences were in alignment regarding the quality of the film.
Now that more fans are streaming Miles Teller’s war movie on Netflix, we wouldn’t be surprised if that audience score crept up even higher.
Aside from the performance of Miles Teller, another reason this film is likely gaining steam on Netflix is that it provides an unflinching perspective on the human cost of war.
Most of the time, Hollywood is responsible for glorifying combat and war, implying a soldier’s time in the service will transform them into cinematic super-soldiers. The truth is that war is hell and coming home is often worse, and this is one of the few recent films to make that abundantly clear.
Ultimately, we highly recommend Thank You for Your Service. It has amazing performances from Miles Teller and others, a tight and emotional script, beautiful cinematography, and you can stream it on Netflix right now without having to leave the house. Considering our record heat waves, nothing is quite as relaxing as watching a cool movie from the comfort of your own home.
