Tears of the Sun (2003)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
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17 films that influenced Tears of the Sun
What critics say influenced Tears of the Sun
Both screenwriters claim their motivation for Tears of the Sun came from Robert Wises The Sand Pebbles, starring Steve McQueen.
Directed by the ill-advisedly named Antoine Fuqua as a follow up to his popular and award winning Training Day, and derived from a screenplay credited to Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo (who apparently found inspiration in the Steve McQueen film The Sand Pebbles), Tears has none of the tension and hopeless-seemingly situations found in that earlier film's one great scene with Cliff Curtis as a mind-fudging gangsta.
To get an idea of just what you're in for with Tears of the Sun, imagine a pinch of Seven Samurai, a few tablespoons full of Saving Private Ryan and a heaping pile of The Sand Pebbles.
What emerges over the course of the two-hour picture, however, feels more like an attempted update of “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” with Willis sitting in for John Wayne and an imposing band of Nigerian rebels taking the place of the Indians.
No claustrophobic close-ups, shaky cam or the slipshod editing of nearly every action film since Saving Private Ryan.
The tormented soldier's inner tug-of-war, that age-old struggle between soldierly duty and human responsibility, is ostensibly the main theme of “Tears of the Sun,” a Bruce Willis action-drama that attempts to split the difference between “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down.”
Other war movies, like The Big Red One or Saving Private Ryan or Hell is For Heroes, succeeded because they did the same.
To get an idea of just what you're in for with Tears of the Sun, imagine a pinch of Seven Samurai, a few tablespoons full of Saving Private Ryan and a heaping pile of The Sand Pebbles.
Other war movies, like The Big Red One or Saving Private Ryan or Hell is For Heroes, succeeded because they did the same.
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The similarities to Predator over the first half of Tears of the Sun are startling (complete with unwilling female charge, token black soldier, pursuit in jungle, and the guerrilla raid of small village); the only real difference is that where John McTiernan's film is a model of the action genre (and, along with Back to the Future , the defining film of the 1980s), Fuqua's Tears of the Sun is an exercise in style over disturbing message.
It was John McTiernans Predator, a fifteen year-old science fiction film that also put American soldiers in a jungle with an unseen enemy.
Up to this point, Antoine Fuqua has directed with the same slick touch he brought to Training Day -- the guy has a punchy way with in-your-face closeups.
"Tears of the Sun" was directed by action specialist Antoine Fuqua, who guided Denzel Washington to a best-actor Oscar in "Training Day" last year.
His last film, Training Day , delivered far more than we could have hoped from it, and Tears of the Sun tries its utmost to keep the streak alive.
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) calls the movie a tribute to the Navy SEALS and all the "men and women who protect us and go into places and do great things about which too little is said."
Director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") fails even the simple challenge of creating excitement out of the shapeless scenes of noise and violence -- the dramatic structure is the cinematic equivalent of a flat line -- but that's hardly the worst of his failures.
But even here, director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") throws in touches that assure us of a committed hand guiding the action.
His face smeared with camouflage and glistening with rain, his features as shadowed as Marlon Brando's in " Apocalypse Now ," he seems like a dark violent spirit sent to rescue them from one hell, only to lead them into another.
Then there's the matter of why the aircraft carrier captain -- Tom Skerritt ("Texas Rangers," "The Other Sister") in a wasted role - makes all of his calls to the team while standing on the noisy flight deck (rather than inside) or finally orders another rescue team at the end when he refused to do so throughout the rest of the movie.
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Tears of the Sun isn�t as intellectually stimulating as Three Kings nor is it as stoic (We Were Soldiers) or half-witted (Behind Enemy Lines) as the films clearly used as a blueprint.
Yet "Tears of the Sun" has much more in common thematically with "Three Kings" than "Behind Enemy Lines."
With its "leave no one behind" mantra and plot that places American military men in harm's way on foreign soil, the movie is apt to remind viewers of recent films such as "When We Were Soldiers," "Three Kings" and "Black Hawk Down."
Rather than victims of Vietnam, Iraq or Somalia, however, Fuqua ("Training Day," "Bait") and screenwriters Alex Lasker ("Beyond Rangoon," "Firefox") and Patrick Cirillo ("The Surgeon," "Homer & Eddie") have set their tale of bravery and sacrifice in the jungles of Nigeria.
If only Fuqua and screenwriters Alex Lasker (Firefox) and Patrick Cirillo (Homer and Eddie) trusted themselves a bit more.