Movie Review: Tears of the Sun

Tears of the Sun

I bought my ticket for Tears of the Sun for several reasons. First of all, Bruce Willis stars in the film and, just as I'm boycotting the work of some others, I'm supporting his efforts. Secondly, the previews I'd seen made the movie look like it would be a pretty good one. After having seen the movie, now I'm placed in the position of telling you the movie is only okay, but you need to see it. You need to see it not just to support Mr. Willis but for a far more important reason: the story it tells is one that everyone should hear.

Tears of the Sun focuses on a civil war in Nigeria. As a military coup is enacted and members of the royal family summarily executed, Bruce Willis (Lt. A.K. Waters) is the leader of a Navy SEAL unit assigned to rescuing several Americans in Nigeria from danger. The crew's primary goal is to get Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) to safety. A priest and two nuns are also to be offered the opportunity to leave with the SEALs. Lt. Waters and his squad parachute into the area about twenty-four hours ahead of government troops, and they immediately tell the doctor that her situation at the mission hospital is precarious at best and she must leave right away. But the doctor stubbornly refuses to go without all of the people at the mission who are capable of walking. Waters finally tells Kendricks he agrees just to get the group moving.

After a few close calls with government troops in the jungle, the group arrives at the pick-up point. When Kendricks realizes the Lieutenant never intended to rescue anyone but her, she is put aboard a helicopter literally kicking and screaming. As the choppers fly over the mission they only recently left, however, she weeps at the death and destruction that occurred after their escape, and the Lieutenant has second thoughts concerning his mission and just what it might encompass if he were to stretch his responsibilities to the fullest extent he can manage.

Tears of the Sun is beautifully photographed (much of it in Hawaii) and there are some impressive special effects and shots of military hardware. The acting is also good, especially including some of the actors playing Nigerian government soldiers who are positively terrifying in their utter ruthlessness. Willis is unquestionably able to play - and play well - the taciturn hero. The problem with the movie is that the script is nowhere near as suspenseful as it could be, and there are some jarring non-sequiturs (like Kendricks managing to renew her flawlessly applied lipstick while running for her life on filthy jungle trails, and a commanding officer who, in the face of blatantly disobeyed orders, basically says, "Well, okay, but be careful, all right?")

Tears of the Sun may be a merely an adequate film, but its story is compelling in its tragedy even as its stark horror is repellant. The movie opens with actual news footage, and it is both graphic and terrible. As the movie takes over, the scenes of carnage courtesy of the government soldiers are truly appalling, and the acts committed by soldiers intent on genocide are horrific. We focus on a man in the Middle East who has killed hundreds or thousands in a few attacks, yet we ignore the hundreds or thousands who are just as dead in Africa. In many ways, the incidences in Africa are even worse than those in Iraq because they involve the face-to-face cold blooded torture and murder of one victim at a time. I can't say that Saddam Hussein should be ignored, but I can't understand why some others are. You owe it to your own likely ignorance to see Tears of the Sun. And once you're educated a little, I defy you not to stand up for something to be done about the despots of the jungle at the same time as we're trying to deal with those in the deserts.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Tears of the Sun is rated R, and it should be. The language is occasionally rough, and the violence is often extreme. In addition, some of the attrocities committed by the Nigerian soldiers are depicted fairly graphically. This is not a movie for children or for squeamish adults. If you can overcome a natural aversion to seeing such things onscreen, however, the movie will prove a real eye-opener. It was for me.