The film is much more relevant today than two years ago...

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2002)

I saw the film last night on cable and was caught up with the theme of terrorism in the Middle East. Two years ago 9/11 hadn't happened and the Arab-Israeli conflict was not white-hot. Today, the film bristles with the energy of the mortal conflict between the West and East.

The story is about one Marine colonel trying to defend another, an old war buddy from Vietnam, from a wrongful charge of murder for firing into a crowd of so-called civilians, killing a large number of men, women and children. Today we call it 'collateral damage.' The movie shows that the attack was necessary, as the raging crowd was armed and firing at the embassy, killing three marines. The colonel on trial finally ordered his men to fire on the crowd, which to the viewing audience seemed the only sensible and logical thing to do. The following day there were all these bodies and no weapons, but the story was that the weapons were removed to give the impression that the 'peaceful' demonstrators were unarmed. The head of the National Security Agency was more interested in catering to world opinion than in backing up the American armed forces, which risked their lives to rescue the embassy personnel, which they successfully did.
The film is about how cynical politicians don't care a fig about the men who risk their lives to save them and keep them secure, only caring about their own image and reputation. And so it is a movie about the betrayal of fighting men by amoral politicians. The prosecuting marine attorney is rabid and ruthless in pursuing the murder charge, claiming the colonel violated the 'rules of engagement.' Tommy Lee Jones gallantly tries to defend his war buddy friend, with whom he had a prior bloody fisticuffs battle when he realizes there are no witnesses, contrary to what he had been told. The case was tougher than he expected, and he didn't feel up to the job in the first place, but he took on this life or death legal contest out of friendship and loyalty and a strong feeling of responsibility. So the film turns out to be a morality tale, the good guys versus the bad guys.
Similarly, with echoes to the present Middle East and terrorist conflict of today, the Muslims are depicted as clever, lying and barbaric, covering up their own role in inciting the massacre. When Tommy Lee Jones was in Yemen, looking for witnesses and evidence, he was surrounded by an angry crowd and almost beaten to death. They hated Americans and called him a murderer.
Fast forward to the trial, the defense attorney knew there was a video camera pointing at the place where the crowd was, that would have shown if they had weapons or not. The movie shows that the videotape was deliberately destroyed by the National Security chief, a slick and smooth talker, who convinced the ambassador to lie about being rescued by the marines. He and his wife were both eyewitnesses and the defense attorney never subpoenaed them because he knew they would perjure themselves.
Ebert and Berardinelli criticized the ending as weak and inconclusive, but the ending did not bother me. What did bother me after the fact was learning that the captions at the end, stating that the colonel was vindicated and the National Security chief caught with his coverup and suspended, was false and fictional, giving the wrong impression that this was a true story. That is unforgiveable because I thought it was a true story, but I'm glad the story was concocted in the first place, because these things do happen, and we need to know about them. Better to be informed by facts than fiction, but sometimes fiction informs where facts are lacking.
Shakespeare's historical plays were full of factual inaccuracies, but the basic facts of greed, lust for power, betrayal of trust, self-aggrandizement, uncontrolled rage and waging war for stupid reasons remain universal truths of the human condition and dramas about them are both informative and entertaining, reminding us of things we would just as soon forget.
So I'll raise Ebert's and Berardinelli's 2 1/2* to *** and recommend the film for those who enjoy courtroom dramas and those who long to see truth, honor and justice prevail over cynicism, betrayal and dishonor.