Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a 2016 war drama film directed by Ang Lee and written by Jean-Christophe Castelli, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Ben Fountain.

The film stars Joe Alwyn, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker.

Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old US Army specialist from Texas, is caught on camera dragging wounded Sergeant Virgil "Shroom" Breem to safety during an intense firefight in Iraq on October 23, 2004.

This act of courage earns Lynn the Silver Star and quickly ascends him and his unit, erroneously designated "Bravo Squad" by the media, to celebrity status.

They return to the U.S. for Shroom's funeral, then are sent on a publicity tour culminating at the halftime show of the November 25 Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving home game.

As the game starts, Billy recalls his time in Iraq, where Shroom had offered him karmic philosophical insight and advice during their downtime.

During the halftime show, featuring Destiny's Child, the loud music and pyrotechnics traumatize an already unstable squad member, Sykes, and he reacts violently against stage manager and a security guard.

Billy and Dime meet with the owner of the Cowboys, Norm Oglesby, who is considering investing in Albert's movie about the incident in Iraq.

Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar-winning screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, was in 2014 adapting the novel for the screen, produced by Film4 in collaboration with a U.S. production company, The Ink Factory, and Sony Pictures' TriStar film studio division.

Also involved in the production are China's Bona Film Group and Studio 8, which is backed by the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International.

[9][10] The cast—Joe Alwyn, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, Beau Knapp, Ben Platt, and Chris Tucker—were announced between February 2015 to May 2015.

[3][22] Lee undertook such a bold step after reading the book since he wanted the film to be an "immersive" and "realistic" experience of the reality and emotional journey of soldiers.

[3] Due to the complexity involved in shooting at a very high frame rate, Lee could not afford to do many takes even for a single scene.

He would rehearse every scene beforehand and would conduct regular morning meetings with the key crew members to highlight things they needed to be alert on.

[3] Shooting close-up shots in 3D with such high resolution meant the cast could not wear make-up and could not deliver less-than-authentic performances.

The film also received a Dolby Cinema release, with two high dynamic range versions that can accommodate 2D and 3D, with up to 120 fps in 2K resolution.

The installation is expected to display 28 foot-lamberts (a measurement of light), per eye, according to RealD chief innovation officer Pete Lude.

[41] Scott Mendelson of Forbes argued that a bag of mixed to negative reviews hindered the box office potential of the film.

He also pointed out that the complex release format—which is the main focus of the whole film—failed to deliver its intended desired effect, which manifested in its poor box office performance.

[45] While it registered the highest percentage of showtimes on Friday owing to Lee's popularity in China, the attendance dwindled and deteriorated from its second day onward due to mixed word of mouth as general audiences were unable to relate to its central character.

[48] The film continued the majority of its international release mainly in January 2017 in Brazil, Mexico and Spain; France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan in February, followed by Korea and Russia in March.

[43] Whereas in France, the movie didn't get his audience (only 11,000 people), Les Cahiers du cinéma listed it as number 10 on their annual top films of 2017.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk has noble goals, but lacks a strong enough screenplay to achieve them—and its visual innovations are often merely distracting.

"[54] The New York Times's A. O. Scott reviewed the film and said, "not exactly a rare war-movie notion, but 'Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk' explores it with gentleness rather than sentimental bombast."

"[55] Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com rated the film two stars out of four, stating that "the contrast between this grisly reality and the way it’s framed as jingoistic spectacle makes a satiric point that’s a bit too obvious to be effective."

"[57] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film two stars out of five, saying that it "has neither topical immediacy nor any real historical perspective and, burdened with pedantic and predictable flashbacks, it finally leads nowhere interesting at all."

He also calls the film "dull, conservative [that] plays it sentimental and safe – and it comes pretty close to suggesting that the best thing for soldiers with PTSD is just to man up and get right back into action."

"[54] Dan Callahan for TheWrap felt that some of the characters were "so super-clear that they look like a cut-out with scissors from a glossy magazine" and said "the extra-clarity 3D in this Lee movie often looks weirdly like something shot on videotape in the 1980s.

"[60] Much like The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which was shot at 48 frames-per-second or twice the typical speed, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk received a polarized reception from critics, with detractors saying the process created an unpleasing video look.