THE LAST FLAG FLYING Stars Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell

THE LAST FLAG FLYING is a film that is far reaching in its scope of human frailty, compassion, faith and the inhumanity of war.   First and last, dir/screenwriter Richard Linklater's film THE LAST FLAG FLYING is the finest anti-war ever made.  Linklater's genius accomplishment is achieved without depicting bloody brutal battle fields.  Needless, the casualties of war are forefront under shrouded coffins draped by the American Flag.  And felt by grieving family left holding onto memories & the tightly folded flag that accompanied their loved ones to their graves.   Doc (Steve Carell) is a widower & father of a soldier just killed in Iraq.  He seeks out his old Vietnam army buddies to accompany him to retrieve his son's body for burial planned at Arlington.  Doc hasn't seen his old army pals in decades.  Doc still thinks of Sal (Bryan Cranston) & Rev. Mueller as his closest friends despite the years & time he served in the brig covering for them. The years have wrought changes in everyone's lives.  Sal, the alcoholic owner of a dismal bar tells a forlorn Doc "You're something once and we all become something else."  Doc asks Sal (whom he located on the internet) to come with him & he willingly obliges.  They pull up to a church nearby which Sal is reluctant to enter.  Doc assures him he'll find this interesting.  Much to the surprise of Sal & chagrin of the church's Rev. Mueller, also a former army buddy.  Mueller & his wife invite Doc & Sal back to their home for dinner.  After dinner, a stoic Doc makes his request. Sal the rambunctious member of the group readily accepts.  Mueller declines but is shamed into going as Sal predicted.  So begins a melancholy, motley crew road trip reuniting 3 former servicemen that bonded as "brothers" and bounded them with all who serve in the military.  "Every generation has its own war."  Pain is pain yet lessons gained never derail the perpetuity of war.  All 3 lead actors are outstanding as is the young Marine (J Quinton) assigned to help transport the casket for burial.  Cicely Tyson has a small but pivotal part as the mother of a fallen soldier in Vietnam whose death shackles them all with remorse.  Linklater's flawless direction mires comedy with solemnity.  The levity offers little relief from the unrelenting gravitas of grief.  Questions of faith, trust, propaganda and government duplicity are handled with kid gloves.  The "brothers" served their time for their country.  The only virtuous attribute of war is a camaraderie of covering each other's backs wrought from a coerced common enemy.  But, the toll for war is too heavy a scourge on humanity.    THE LAST FLAG FLYING is masterful film if only it had the omnipotence to overcome war.