"Wars begin where you will
but they do not end where you please."  - Machiavelli

Oscar winner Irwin Winkler is the director of Home of the Brave, a dramatic story revolving around soldiers who struggle to readjust to normal life after returning home from a lengthy tour of duty in Iraq. The impressive cast in the original screenplay by Mark Friedman from a story by Friedman and Winkler are Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Biel, Christina Ricci, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Chad Michael Murray, and Brian Presley.

Photographed on rugged locations in Morocco to stage Iraq battle scenes and later in Spokane, Washington, for the emotional homecoming of the main characters, the film deals with not only the battles in a distant country, but those at home as well. To date, perhaps more than a million U.S. troops have served in Iraq since the invasion, and tens of thousands have shown signs of serious stress upon their return.

"It's a subject we read about but certainly haven't dramatized very much," says Winkler, who came up with the idea after reading a magazine story nearly two years ago. As examples of the best screen dramas about wartime aftermath, the acclaimed filmmaker harks back to the Vietnam screen drama, "Coming Home" and "The Deer Hunter," and William Wyler's classic tale of troubled World War II veterans in "The Best Years of Our Lives".

Winkler was taken with the unique stresses, both physical and psychological, that America's combat troops endure during warfare. Even in modern times, it was deemed that not enough attention was in place to help returning veterans cope with the stress of returning to civilian life, though the armed services are presently offering troops some programs for rehabilitation. 

Home of the Brave follows four returning soldiers as they survive the ravages of war in a distant land and then try to come home to continue their lives. It was Robert Browning who said: "He who did well in war, earns the right to begin doing well in Peace." Many find that a difficult task.

Samuel L. Jackson portrays a medical Captain, a surgeon who is tormented by lost lives he could not save in war and returns home not as the doctor he once was. In the role of a military cargo driver, Jessica Biel plays a woman who returns home to face the emotional and physical readjustment her wounds carry.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is cast in a tragic role as an army specialist haunted by the combat killing of an Iraqi woman who is unable to cope with his anger once he returns home to his friends and the young girl who once cared about him. Brian Presley, a specialist whose childhood best friend dies in his arms in Iraq, returns home to his sweetheart but is compelled to go back to war and support his comrades in their fight.

Directed by
Irwin Winkler

Cast
Samuel L. Jackson - Will Marsh
Jessica Biel - Vanessa Price
Christina Ricci - Sarah Schivino
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson - Jamal Aiken
Brian Presley - Tommy Yates
Victoria Rowell - Penelope Marsh
Chad Michael Murray - Jordan Owens
Jeff Nordling - Cary
Vyto Ruginis - Hank Yates
Sam Jones - Billy Marsh

Production Co.
Nu Image/Millennium Films
Freedom Films
Winkler Films

Produced by
Randall Emmett
John Thompson
Boaz Davidson

Studio
MGM Studios

Writer
Mark Friedman

Music
Stephen Endelman