Thirty years later, in 1998, Jackson is being court-marshaled for the slaughter of 83 unarmed Yemenite women, children and elderly people. While on the surface Rules is a battlefield and courtroom drama tackling the sticky issues of protecting conflicting U.S. interests abroad, the particular path it follows is blood-soaked and laughably propagandist. Based on a story by former U.S. Secretary of the Navy James Webb, in the hands of director William Friedkin this fiction quickly abandons moral ambiguity in favor of emotion, manipulating common fears and our sense of justice to deliver the antiseptic message that no matter what front-page pictures and outraged politicians have to say, you can bet the stars and stripes our military has a right to shoot civilians in a crisis. The closeups of black-veiled women and Arab children firing UZIs at American soldiers is second only to the scene where the North Vietnamese soldier testifies in court on Jackson's behalf, solemnly saluting him afterwards. The end notes further add to the illusion that this is a true story.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, indeed.
Woody Allen pretty much gives up on originality in this collection of rejected Catskill comic gags. While there are few laughs, there's an endearing quality to this tale, which focuses on older people taking one more shot at their dreams. Woody even makes the daring move of pairing himself with Tracey Ullman, who's only young enough to be his daughter, not his granddaughter. Older audiences seem to be enjoying this movie, and it's nice to see something aimed at that age bracket, but one wishes there had been a little more ingenuity in the comedy. Sophia Coppola's adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides Virgin Suicides is both cinematic and true to the novel.