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Tears of the Sun (2003)
Tears of the Sun is based on an interesting notion. Take a professional soldier, a man trained to do a job and get out without any trace of emotion, and put him in a position so horrible that it becomes impossible not to be affected. What would he do then?
Bruce Willis plays Lieutenant A.K. Waters, an Army Ranger assigned to lead a squad into civil war torn Nigeria to retrieve Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci)an American doctor and her relief workers. Her people refuse to leave the wounded they're caring for and at first, so does she. She relents when Waters agrees to also move the seventy refugees she's tending to. This is of course not his real intention. He hauls her onto the helicopter and leaves, stranding the refugees they had just marched for a day. But when they fly back over the church that was their hospital, they see it has been attacked by rebels who have slaughtered all those too injured to travel. Waters can't take it and orders the helicopter back to the surviving refugees. He then sends back the wounded and children on the helicopters, intending to march the rest of the refugees to the Cameroon border and safety.
Naturally, his superior isn't too happy to get a load of refugees back instead of his Rangers and the people they were assigned to retrieve. The political situation is a nightmare and they simply can't afford to send the support to get Waters' team and the refugees out.
The movie is shot beautifully. Landscapes are lush and vivid, the night is creepy and deadly, the action intense. From a visual standpoint, there is nothing to complain about in the film. Much of it exists at night with a palette of blacks and greens that is almost surreal. Characters seem to slide in and out of existence in the deep darkness, leaving us disoriented and more than a little unnerved. Director Antoine Fuqua has a strong sense of style and gets great work from cinematographers Mauro Fiore and Keith Solomon.
The acting, particularly Willis, is solid. He can do this sort of role in his sleep and lend it all the necessary weight to make it real. When you see his steely grimace, highlighted by the oddly puckered mouth, you know this man will not fail you. The motivation of this character to disobey orders and thus lead his men into much greater danger is questionable. When one of his men asks, he responds "I'll let you know as soon as I do." Not many actors could make that work but he does. It's a cheap out by the writers and yet Willis is actually able to sell it.
As I said, the premise is the conflict between a professional soldier and emotions he's supposed to suppress. It would have been nice if the whole movie was about that. It works well for awhile but at some point you can almost feel the Hollywood need for the tried and true bursting out, taking over and installing a traditional action movie on the end. Sure, the action is intense and well shot, but what point does it serve? It does nothing for the story and seeks only to show off how real movies can look these days.
It's hard not to like the film. It looks and sounds great and features another solid performance from Willis. But the screenplay is the weak link in the film. It tackles big ideas and problems head on but lacks the nerve to follow through on them. Some more courage and faith in the audience to appreciate the hard work would have led to a much more satisfying film.
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