Dimensions
153 x 234 x 24mm
The eight surviving members of Bravo Squad are national heroes.
Four months into their combat tour of Iraq, Bravo defeat an elite force of enemy insurgents in a ferocious fire-fight. The battle is captured on film by a Fox News camera crew, the footage is a viral sensation on the internet and Bravo become celebrities, virtually overnight. Seizing on this public relations gift, the Bush administration send them on a nationwide media-intensive "Victory Tour". This, the final day, takes place at Texas Stadium as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Chicago Bears in a nationally broadcast Thanksgiving Day game.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk follows the Bravos through the course of the day, in particular 19-year-old Specialist William 'Billy' Lynn. In these final hours, Billy and his fellow Bravos are the Cowboys's guests of honour; they will mix and mingle with the rich and powerful, aspire to sex and marriage with the famous Cowboys cheerleaders, share centre stage with Destiny's Child during the halftime extravaganza, attempt to close a movie deal with the help of veteran Hollywood producer Albert Ratner, endure the politics and affections of their fellow citizens, drink and brawl, yearn for home, discover love and mourn their dead. And the following morning, they must go back to war.
Billy's is a soldier's tale but the battlefield is the home front: the dangerous disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad, the wounds inflicted by the rituals and contradictions of 21st century America.
