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"I will not leave without my people."
A team of Navy Seals lead by Lieutenant A. K. Waters (Bruce Willis) has been charged to enter the interior of Nigeria, Africa and
extricate 4 Americans who will some be killed by rebel soldiers. Their mission is simple, drop in, and take the 4 people
and evac out as soon as possible. A simple mission, which soon turns into one that, is more complex. It also gives us
a film that could have been a lot more if it didn't turn so Hollywood clichéd at its climax. Still TEARS OF THE
SUN has much to say about humanity and the role men ply in it, and, it is said rather well.
"Go with God."
"God already left Africa."
The story itself is simple enough but the script, plot, great cast, excellent music and especially the cinematography have created a nicely
crafted film about doing
the right thing in the face of adversity. We are given the opportunity to see a group of well trained soldiers who decide that their
fellow man comes before following orders, even at the risk of ones own life. It also lets us glimpse a small portion in the life of self
sacrificing ideologists. It takes brave people to devote oneself to the aid of others under adverse conditions, braver than yours truly.
Braver still are those that will stay on even when they know that their lives will probably be forfeited. Brave souls indeed.
out return sight of patients and hospital dead.
"This wasn't about saving your life. It was about completing the mission, that's all."
Monica Bellucci plays Dr. Lena Hendricks, the widow of a famous American doctor who works in the jungle, at a Christian mission,
helping people who need
medical assistance. With her are a priest and two nuns. Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his men have been charged with their removal from a
dangerous war zone. A bloody civil war rages in Nigeria and the rebels are killing all government members and the royal family. These people are at
risk for their lives and they must be removed. Dr. Lena Hendricks refuses to leave unless they take aa many of her patients as possible as they
would be killed, otherwise. She is quite correct in this, of course, these people she knows would become victims of a genocidal war. This
seems to happen often in Africa, as one tribe will try to destroy another. Look at Rwanda in 1994, a horrific war of genocide saw up to one
million people murdered.
 
"Right now you are on your own."
A.K. reluctantly agrees to take her Nigerian refugees along, so as to get Hendricks to leave willingly. He marches everyone to the evac point to
be removed by helicopters. The priest, Father Gianni (Pierrino Mascarino) and the two nuns Sister Grace (Fionnula Flanagan)
and Sister Siobhan (Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy) stay behind with those too sick to move.
This leads to their brutal deaths at the hands of merciless amoral rebel soldiers. The soldiers destroy every one at the hospital compound. It
is a sad sight.
"Sir, rules of engagement?"
"You will defend yourselves, otherwise to not fire upon."
When Waters and the refugees arrive at the pick up point, he hussles the caring doctor into the helicopter and leaves the refugees behind as he
had planned along. His orders were to get her out and not these refugees. They would have to fend for themselves. A screaming Hendricks is
dragged away, knowing full well the rebels would find and kill them all. The weeping refugess watch their only chance at survival fly away into
the skies over the jungle. The helicopters fly over the now burning and destroyed hospital. This is where the film takes an alternate approach
and tells a story that warns us against standing around and doing nothing, when it may be in your power to alter the course of events. It uplifts
us to see an example of what we should aim to be rather than what we are told to be. This is where our story really begins.
"Your staff should be frightened. Do you have any idea what's going to happen when the rebels get here?"
The team is ordered to return but Waters makes the decision to return to the stranded refugees and decides to help them. His superiour will not send
any more choppers as it is too risky so he has no choice but to get across the border into friendly Cameroon and freedom. The Italian doctor, Lena
refuses to go and wants to stay with her friends and help Waters. Twelve of the weakest refugees are evacuted and the rest are left to march on alone
to the friendly border. What he doesn't know is that the refugees hold a secret or two.
 
"There are all sorts of possible scenerios Dr. Hendricks. I do not presume to know them all."
Somehow the rebels discover that Americans are in the jungle and go after them. After some close calls,Waters is surprised to discover that
the enemy is looking for them. He can not figure out how they found out they were even in the country. Now they have to be extra careful and
their hard journey just became deadlier. What he is unware of is that the rebels are not interested in the Americans as much as they are
interested in one of the refugees. This leads to some very tense moments.
"How can they do this?"
"This is what they do. They cut off the breasts of nursing mothers, so they'll never again feed their own babies.This is what... they... do."
Most of the film consists of plenty of walking through the jungle and hiding from the rebels. Water's team is not exactly happy being there but
once they come across a village set upon by the merciless rebels, the men quickly change their minds and receive a hard lesson in what can
happen when men allow scum to survive. On their march to arrive at a village where they are witness to the horrible cruelity that these rebels were
capable of carrying out. The team goes ballistic when they see the wholesale slaughter of women and children. They find stacks of dead bodies
piled high. Rebels shooting at village men making them dance and then killing them. The crucial scene here is a tough
one to watch. The American soldiers interrupt some rebel soldiers raping a woman in her hut. Next to this abused woman is her dead baby. This
would have been bad enough but they have also cut off her breasts. Dr. Hendricks explains to them that the rebels do this horrible mutilation so
that these women can not feed their children. It is a powerful scene that cause the Americans to take a terrible vengeance on all the rebels they find.
The refugees watch all this in tears to see their countrymen slaughtered in this manner.
"You never planned to get all of us out, did you?"
Maybe I am reading more in to this film, but to me the film seems to be about the death of innocence. Innocent peole are killed everywhere but the
innocence of Waters and his men is lost as well. It seems that up to now they just did their job and never really saw this type of mass murder. Their
"sheltered" military life is shattered, they have seen the real face of war, and it isn't pretty.
 
"I wonder what it takes to earn your trust."
Now just in case people think the film is too preachy, the producers made sure that African American Director Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY)
finished the film with an incredible battle that is right up Willis' alley. Hundreds and hundreds of rebel soldiers converge at the border to stop the
refugees from escaping over the border. If you go to see TEARS OF THE SUN you will be rewarded with some absolutely exhilarating and
exciting combat footage. It is awesome to watch these few men try to take on this massive rebel group. Lives are lost of course it would not have been
very realistic otherwise. When it comes to action you will find this movie definitely kicks butt.
"I can't look at them like packages anymore. I'm going to get them out or die trying."
So why are the rebels doing all this for a rag tag group of refugees? Hey don't expect to find the answer in this review. I am not going to give that one
away. Go see TEARS OF THE SUN and find out. Keep in mind that this is one film that is not recommended for young children,
"Freedom!"
One last bit of soapbox commentary for you to ponder while standing in the shower. African tribes have been fighting and killing each other
for hundreds of years. It seems to me that if this nation every worked together and forged one or two countries from all the small ones, the continent
of Africa would become a world power to be contended with. Someday it may just happen. Not in my lifetime of course. Finally,
I wonder if people who move quickly to fight wars and kill innocents really believe God looks down and acknowedges their right to destroy innocent lives?
What a bunch of morons, they be.
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