War genre movies are not usually as emotional, as complex and as richly provocative as Tears Of The Sun, especially when they star action heroes such as Bruce Willis.
But this one has the goods to be good. Despite a few lapses, such as the "Thank-you-Bwana" speech at the end, Tears Of The Sun is just as remarkable as a drama as it is intense as an action flick. This layering happens without sacrificing the usual thrills that Willis' fans expect when he's in charge.
In character in this movie, Willis is laconic, emotionally dark and stripped of his usual sarcastic quips, which gives him an aura of wildcat danger. So he is less predictable, less reliable and more interesting.
Willis plays the gruff commander of a U.S. Navy SEAL team sent into a fictional war zone in Nigeria. There are rebels ripping through the countryside murdering a rival ethnic group -- "ethnic cleansing" makes it sound too antiseptic -- while savaging foreigners, especially European missionaries who harbour and give succor to refugees.
BEREFT OF HUMANISM
But the SEALs are not there to rescue these beleaguered peoples. They are there just to pick up "a package" -- an Italian doctor (Monica Bellucci) who is the daughter-in-law of a U.S. senator, and therefore a political prize.
The motivations of the American military in this movie are bereft of humanism, although this is not an overtly political movie.
In any case, the SEALs' mission goes awry. Otherwise the movie would be 10 minutes long. Through what appears to be a spontaneous moral decision that rumbles up from his gut, Willis' character takes a sudden turn and defies his explicit orders against getting involved in the war. So Tears Of The Sun turns into a two-hour movie about elite U.S. soldiers trying to bring the doctor and a large group of Nigerian refugees through the jungle to safety.
What truly separates Tears Of The Sun from genre pictures, and perhaps the only thing that lets the title work as metaphor, is that director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) is painstaking in giving everyone dignity and respect.
The refugees are given as much screen time and emphasis as the SEALs.
Many genre pictures in Hollywood do not allow the camera to linger on secondary characters, especially people of colour, in critical situations including death scenes. By using close-ups and lighting the scenes properly and providing the right sensitive dialogue, Fuqua makes everyone equal.
MURDEROUS RAMPAGE
This technique is used rather powerfully in the gut-wrenching genocide sequence, when the SEALs intervene during the rebels' murderous rampage through a jungle village. That does not diminish the importance of the leads, especially tough-as-nails Willis, the fiery Bellucci as the member of Doctors Without Borders, and the elegant Akosua Busia (Nettie in The Color Purple) as the most outspoken of the Nigerian refugees. Fuqua skillfully tells the main action story and fulfills the rest of his agenda, too.
(This film is rated AA)
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