"I went and saw that new war movie, the one about the vet."
"Good?"
"Eh, I think the director took a lot of liberties with what actually happened."
"Like with the casting?"
"No, no, with the actual story. Toward the end he really strays from how it went down in real life. Honestly, at some point I lost the thread completely."
"Why, what happens?"
"So the guy — his name's Wyatt Cole in the movie — he finally makes it back home to Harlan County after three tours, right?"
"Right."
"And when he gets there he finds out this contractor, guy named Russ Denning, basically stole everything while he was gone. The family land, the equipment, the whole operation."
"Oh yeah, I remember that part from the trailer."
"So Wyatt tracks the guy down. Goes after him and his two business partners, one by one, and kills all three."
"Okay, and that's basically what happened in real life too."
"Right, but here's where it gets strange. They arrest him, put him on trial, and he actually gets convicted for killing all three of them."
"I mean, that tracks. Premeditated murder is premeditated murder."
"Sure, but half the county doesn't see it that way. Half of Harlan thinks he had every right, because these guys forged the paperwork, ran his family off their own land while he was overseas defending the country."
"Okay, but he still planned it out. You said it yourself, he went after them one at a time."
"Wait, it keeps going. So the whole county splits down the middle over this. And then a state senator running for reelection starts using the case to push this whole message — that taking justice into your own hands is patriotic, practically a constitutional right."
"That doesn't sound like a great message to be sending."
"And then the governor comes out and says Wyatt deserves a full pardon, except it turns out the governor doesn't actually have that power for a federal case, it has to go through the President. So now there's this whole embarrassing mess playing out on cable news."
"How long is this ending?"
"Forever. Feels like forty-five minutes. The whole town's picking sides — half saying he belongs in Leavenworth for the rest of his life, half saying they'd have done the exact same thing in his boots."
"And you, watching it?"
"I don't know if it's the theater, some fancy new sound system, but you feel like you're sitting right there in that courtroom, and you start wanting to pick a side too."
"So it's good?"
"I don't know, man. It's a mess. You walk out kind of wrung out, like you need a minute in the parking lot before you can drive."
"Well, that's kind of his whole thing as a director."
"But past all that, it leaves you with this strange feeling."
"What feeling?"
"That if Wyatt had been a woman — say her name's Dana instead — nobody would've rallied behind her like that."
"Why not?"
"Because Dana's Black."
