Directed by:  Antoine Fuqua
Written by:  Alex Lasker, Patrick Cirillo
Starring:  Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Tom Skerrit, Cole Hauser
 

March 16, 2003

I'll be the first to jump on a big Hollywood action flick and pan it for its cliché’s and big budget nonsense.  But Tears of the Sun doesn’t quite fit into that category.  Like Training Day, director Antoine Fuqua’s previous film where Denzel Washington won the Academy Award for playing his first evil character, Tears has many flaws—the most prevalent one being the premise, which is for bleeding-heart liberals who want the US to save the world. 

Commander A. K. Waters (Willis) commands a team of  Special-Ops who are ordered to enter the hostile Nigerian jungle to rescue a doctor, a priest, and some nuns.  Once there, Waters’s team basically has to kidnap Dr. Hendricks, played by the Italian Monica Bellucci of the upcoming Matrix sequels, to complete their mission.  Hendricks refuses to leave unless they also take the 50+ refugees in her camp.  Waters does manage to get her on a chopper to return home to safety, but then half way there, his conscience gets the best of him and he decides to turn back and fight off the Nigerian army to save the refugees.

Bleeding heart liberals will love this part as they spurt, “this is the right thing to do”.  But I pose the question, at what cost?  It would be great to save the world and always fight the good fight, but resources limit that capability—multiplied by the fact that it’s not our problem to fight every fight.  Waters’s mission was to rescue the doctor, not save the country’s people.  The fact that he goes back is too much of a cliché of the action hero—I highly doubt a seasoned commander like him would turn around against orders and risk the life of his men.  But what sets this apart from most big budget Hollywood war movie crap like Hart’s War or Behind Enemy Lines is the realism of the setting. 

Tears has some stunning, intense action scenes, reminiscent of Black Hawk Down—like when the team invades the village that’s being pillaged and whacks all the enemies with the silencers.  Fuqua also has an eye here and there and manages to capture some really great shots, some great scenery.  He has the potential to be a great director, if he would just work more carefully with his scripts. 

The Replacement Killers, a kung-fu gunplay action cop flick starring Chow Yun-Fat, was just a natural progression for Fuqua from music videos.  But Training Day showed some potential.  While the last third of the film fell apart with cliché upon cliché and unbelievable action sequences, the first part had some great acting and built up good suspense, notably Denzel’s performance as a rogue street cop.  Although Tears of the Sun begins with an inane premise and ends with a ridiculous chase, the action sequences make it worth the watch.

Alternate Recommendations:  Die Hard, Apocalypse Now

Check out these other Fidelio Film Reviews:

Apocalpse Now Redux
The Beach
Ride with the Devil
Rules of Engagement
Three Kings