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Based on previews of Tears Of The Sun, my more conspiracy-minded
friends have complained to me that this film is not simply
a mid-spring major motion picture release. Instead, they suggest
it’s a very timely piece of propaganda that glorifies warfare
and seeks to infect the minds of our youth; a powerful pop
culture tool at a time when our country is on the brink of
invading Iraq. At first glance, there does appear to be some
justifiable reason for these concerns. Off screen, Willis
is an avowed Republican, and in this most recent effort he
is playing yet again another Rambo-type action hero possessed
of a no-nonsense, get-the-job-done-right attitude. (And there
is a tendency to think Americans have a sole lock on these
attributes.) But after watching this film, I’d like to offer
some reassurances. One needed worry about carefully crafted
jingoism here.
Bruce Willis plays Lieutenant A.K. Waters (possibly the oldest
lieutenant you’ll ever see), an S.E.A.L. commando sent into
the jungles of Nigeria to rescue American doctor Lena Hendricks
(Bellucci). Jungle fighting has come a long way since
Vietnam. Armed not only with superior weaponry, but laptop
computers with satellite connections and wireless phones,
Willis has a clear idea of where the enemy is and he keeps
his C.O. well-informed. This includes violating orders from
his superior officer by deciding the mission is not simply
about getting a job done, but about saving lives. Willis decides
to rescue not only the American doctor, but a small group
of refugees who will be slaughtered if they stay behind.
And so Willis and the rag-tag group of Nigerians stumble off
into the jungle toward Cameroon in a desperate effort to make
it to the nearest border.
This movie is legitimately bad for a variety of reasons:
The more obvious ones include bad cinematography and insipid
dialogue. The scenes shot in the nighttime jungle are so dark,
it’s almost impossible to make out any of the action or who’s
doing what to whom. And the script is embarrassingly stupid.
Willis mutters lines like, “I broke my own rule, I started
to give a fuck.” There also isn’t a spark of chemistry between
Willis and Bellucci, and their antagonistic relationship grows
tiresome within the first 20 minutes of the film. Willis is
in fact, trying to save the group from a contingent of angry-looking
Nigerian soldiers who are relentlessly following them through
the jungle. But Lena seems unaware of this minor detail and
spends most of the time haranguing Willis for not allowing
anyone to take a breather. Let’s face it, most people would
recognize the immediacy of danger but Bellucci seems to always
need Willis to light a fire under her ass.
But the worst sins of this film are not these frank violations
of basic cinematic formula. More egregiously, this film offends
through its subtle themes of paternalism and racism. In a
way, this film reinforces the idea that people in poor countries
are barbaric and incapable of helping themselves. What’s happening
in several African countries today is nothing less than wide-scale
genocide, but Tears Of The Sun minimizes these serious
issues with its simplistic dialogue. These real-life atrocities
are referred to as “ethnic cleansing” and no insight is ever
provided as to how or why civil wars are tearing apart not
only Nigeria but other parts of the African continent. The
closest the film ever comes to explaining this sorry phenomenon
comes when a soldier from Willis’s unit stammers, “How can
they do this?” to which the local villager replies, “This
is what they do.” This is hardly insightful, but one-dimensional
exchanges like this make up the bulk of the film.
Tears Of The Sun may seem like a timely piece of propaganda
for those of us who live in a country with a president hell-bent
on invading the Middle East, but trust me, this film deals
with its subject matter so incompetently, it doesn’t matter
how one feels about war at all. Peacenik or hawk, this film
will alienate both.
—Nancy Semin
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out of 5
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