9 years after "Boys Don't Cry," director finds a movie that moves her

Kimberly Peirce's feature film "Boys Don't Cry" opened in theaters in 1999 to great acclaim, winning an Academy Award for Hilary Swank and catapulting Peirce into the elite circle of directors-to-watch. Nine years later, she's back with her second feature, the military drama "Stop-Loss" (opening in theaters Friday). And yes, there were a few detours along the way.

Peirce, in town last month, remembered the rush that followed the arrival of "Boys Don't Cry," a film that began as her thesis project at Columbia University. "I think what's great about a personal movie is that there's a drive to it — you're so determined to get it done, you do get it done," she said. "You're sort of shot out of the box. Then you face this big choice. Here you are, you had this one idea that fueled you and you've learned your craft. You've gotten a certain amount of respect, and [studios] want to give you millions of dollars to make their movies. But it's very different to make one of their movies vs. something that came from you."

One high-profile project turned up that Peirce "fell deeply in love with." "Silent Star" was, like "Boys Don't Cry," based on a true story: the mysterious 1922 Hollywood murder of silent-film director William Desmond Taylor. Peirce researched the story; developed the script; even cast the film with Annette Bening, Hugh Jackman, Ben Kingsley and Evan Rachel Wood. But budget problems with the studio sidelined the project after several years of development, leaving Peirce exhausted and dismayed. It was "a huge emotional and physical toll," she said. "I took that movie as far as it could be taken." In the face of frustration, she thought, "I have to go do something that matters."

That energy got transferred to the military film that would become "Stop-Loss," another project that had long intrigued Peirce — partly inspired, she said, by a viewing of Hal Ashby's "The Last Detail," the 1973 road movie about a pair of Navy men. "Right when 'Silent Star' got derailed, ... I watched the 'Last Detail.' I love Hal Ashby. I was like [... ] let's sit down and write a movie that costs 7 million dollars" — very cheap by Hollywood standards — "Let's have a couple of guys on a base. Let's have them have a good dramatic conflict. And they take a road trip, and it's very simple."

Peirce wondered about soldiers at war: What were their reasons for going, what was it like to serve, what was it like to go home on leave knowing they had to return to the front? She began interviewing Iraq War soldiers and their families. And then real life intervened: Peirce's younger brother, then 18 years old, enlisted and went to Iraq, and "suddenly, we were a military family." Keeping in touch with her brother through instant messaging, Peirce found herself getting firsthand reports from a combat zone.

On her brother's first leave home, at Thanksgiving, Peirce remembers seeing him mesmerized by a television viewing of videos created by soldiers in Iraq of their own experience in combat. "I watched him doing that and thought, 'Oh my God, this is the face of this war from these soldiers' point of view.' They're shooting it, they're experiencing it and they're editing it. And he's on leave and he can't leave the war behind. And I said to him, 'Why are you watching this, when you want to be home?' He said, 'I don't want to get too attached. I don't want to let go of too much that I've just experienced, because I'm going to leave here and I'm going to have to go back.' "

Soldier-made videos became a key component and inspiration for the movie, with Peirce collecting them from soldiers and families around the country. (Many can be viewed at the film's Web site, www.myspace.com/stoplossmovie.) In the film, young soldier Brandon King (Ryan Philippe) struggles with his feelings toward duty and combat. Having completed his tour, he returns home to his small town relieved to have survived and ready to start his life again. But the stop-loss policy, in which the military retains soldiers in service beyond their expected term, is invoked on his behalf, and he is told he must return.

Peirce's brother is now safely home, his service completed. And with "Stop-Loss" finished and almost launched, Peirce is considering her next project. She's currently at work writing two different scripts — one based on a true story of sexual taboo in an American family, and the other a romantic comedy inspired by "my first and only blind date" — and is open to the possibility of directing another writer's work. In any case, the movies will come in their own time. "Having been down the road with 'Silent Star,' " she said, "I understand that the things I am most passionate about don't always conform to the timeline of Hollywood."

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com