Tears of the Sun (2003)

A Special-Ops commander leads his team into the Nigerian jungle in order to rescue a doctor who will only join them if they agree to save 70 refugees too.

Director:

Antoine Fuqua

Writers:

Alex Lasker, Patrick Cirillo

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser, Monica Bellucci

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	Lieutenant A.K. Waters
Monica Bellucci	...	Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks
Cole Hauser	...	James 'Red' Atkins
Eamonn Walker	...	Ellis 'Zee' Pettigrew
Johnny Messner	...	Kelly Lake
Nick Chinlund	...	Michael 'Slo' Slowenski
Charles Ingram	...	Demetrius 'Silk' Owens
Paul Francis	...	Danny 'Doc' Kelley
Chad Smith	...	Jason 'Flea' Mabry
Tom Skerritt	...	Captain Bill Rhodes
Malick Bowens	...	Colonel Idris Sadick
Awaovieyi Agie	...	Musa
Akosua Busia	...	Patience
Hadar Busia-Singleton	...	Amaka
Ida Onyango	...	Lasana

Storyline

Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician, Dr. Lena Kendricks. Dr. Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage, is tending to the victims of the ongoing civil war at a Catholic mission in a remote village. When Waters arrives, however, Dr. Kendricks refuses to leave unless he promises to help deliver the villagers to political asylum at the nearby border. If they are left behind, they will be at the mercy of the enormous rebel army. Waters is under strict orders from his commanding officer ...

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Plot Keywords:

refugee | nigeria | civil war | rescue mission | murder of a priest | 

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Taglines:

He was trained to follow orders. He became a hero by defying them.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong war violence, some brutality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hostile Act

Filming Locations:

Dole Plantation - 64-1550 Kamehameha Highway, Wahiawa, O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,057,213, 9 March 2003, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$43,734,876

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$42,733,286

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cheyenne Enterprises, Michael Lobell Productions, Revolution Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min 142 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kevin Smith, (a different one than the writer and director of Clerks (1994)) was originally cast to co-star with Bruce Willis as a supporting SEAL team member. Tragically, he died from head injuries sustained from a three story prop tower fall, after his last film Warriors of Virtue: The Return to Tao (2002) wrapped.

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Goofs

During the scene where the group is traveling up the stream in the rain, the SEAL that carries the shotgun is seen with his M4 slung with the muzzle pointed up. Anyone with any weapons training would know to sling a weapon with the muzzle pointed towards the ground while it is raining.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Female news reader: [voiceover] The tension that had been brewing for months in Nigeria exploded yesterday as exiled General Mustafa Yakubu orchestrated a swift and violent coup against the democratically elected government of President Samuel Azuka. In a land with 120 million people and over 250 ethnic groups, there'd been a long-standing history of ethnic enmity, particularly between the Fulani Moslems in the north and Christian Ibo in the south. The victorious Fulani rebels have taken to the streets...

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Crazy Credits

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke

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Connections

References Geheimcode Wildgänse (1984)

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Soundtracks

Cry In Silence
Written By Jim Dooley, Martin Tillman
Performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony (as The Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra)
Orchestrated By Yvonne S. Moriarty (as Suzette Moriarty)
Conductor / Orchestrated By, Bruce Fowler
(p) © 2003 Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC.

User Reviews

Outstanding middle part surrounded by Hollywood clichés

'Tears of the Sun' is a movie with a message and an interesting first hour, but contains too many Hollywood clichés to really be something. We start with Lieutenant Waters (Bruce Willis) and his team of SEALS who have to rescue Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a priest and two nuns from a missionary post in Nigeria where murdering rebels are about to arrive. The priest and the nuns want to stay, Kendricks only wants to come if the Nigerian refugees can come too. Waters agrees only to leave them behind as soon as Kendricks is on the helicopter. Then, from the helicopter, he witnesses the result of rebels passing by and in an instant he disobeys his orders and turns the helicopter around.

This is the point where the best part of the movie begins. Waters and his team are on their own now, leading the refugees to the border of Cameroon. The way his team not always agrees with his decisions but how they are loyal anyway is one of the interesting things here. Another is the way the movie dares to show the rebels and their actions, things we see parts of on the news in places like Liberia and Sudan. It gives us an impression how hopeless the situation is in some parts of Africa. The distraction here comes from Kendricks who is an obvious Hollywood plot device. She is the possible love interest, or at least the needed female character, and she must annoy Waters by constantly suggesting things that even to her must sound stupid when followed by a lot of rebels. Never mind.

Then the third act starts and the movie fails to deliver what it kind of promised before. Instead of following the dramatic path it changes into the kind of action film Hollywood likes to produce. A lot of gunfire, explosions and bodies flying through the air. That's too bad since an earlier action sequence was able to show both the horrific actions of the rebels and the trained and nuanced way of SEALS dealing with a situation. During that sequence I felt a director (Antoine Fuqua) doing his job the right way, making the movie very intense. He did the same thing for the excellent 'Training Day' from the year before. His third act of 'Tears of the Sun' was sort of like an introduction to his real Hollywood adventure, 'King Arthur'.