'The Last Full Measure' review: Unconvincing fictions thwart this fact-based drama

An all-star cast of Baby Boomers, including Peter Fonda in his final film role, play Vietnam War veterans in "The Last Full Measure," Todd Robinson's dramatization of a remarkable true story. Its hero is Air Force Pararescueman William Pitsenbarger, who died after lowering himself by helicopter into a bloody ambush in the jungle of Xa Cam My and saving scores of lives. It took nearly 35 years for the survivors to obtain a posthumous Medal of Honor for the man they affectionately call Pits. 

It also took Robinson (2013's submarine thriller "Phantom") a long time to make this movie — roughly 20 years. It finally arrives with good intentions and high hopes of becoming another "American Sniper," "Unbroken" or "Hacksaw Ridge." It's thwarted, however, by Robinson's over-fictionalized script and somewhat generic directing style. Taking its title from a line in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address honoring fallen soldiers, "The Last Full Measure" has potential for great emotional power but too often feels like Hollywood hokum. 

The movie centers on a young, ambitious Pentagon staffer, Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan), who views the long-dormant case of Pits' medal as thankless grunt work. His views change, of course, as he meets the people involved. William Hurt plays veteran Tom Tulley, who's been leading the effort to obtain the medal; Ed Harris and Samuel L. Jackson play former soldiers with guilty secrets; and John Savage, of "The Deer Hunter," plays Kepper, a onetime warrior now running a butterfly sanctuary in Vietnam like a peaceful version of Colonel Kurtz from "Apocalypse Now." Fonda is Jimmy Burr,  a vet who still wears his uniform and addresses everyone as "sir." All manage to wrangle Robinson's overwrought dialogue into shape; Christopher Plummer and Diane Ladd, as Pits' parents, also shine in their brief scenes. 

The problem is that nearly everyone here, aside from the Pitsenbargers (Jeremy Irvine plays Pits in many bloody flashbacks), is fictional. That includes Huffman himself, which leads to a question: Is the high-level conspiracy he uncovers — the one that nearly costs him his fictional career — also a fiction? It feels awfully vague, something about a senator up for reelection (Dale Dye, a real-life Vietnam veteran and military adviser) and his wily adviser (the always excellent Bradley Whitford).

All of this makes "The Last Full Measure" less than fully satisfying, especially since Robinson's script occasionally manages to say something truly moving about heroism and sacrifice. One of the most eloquent lines comes from Pits' mother, when she explains why she blessed her son's decision to join the war. "If not my son," she says, "whose?"