Tears of the Sun
Tags: tragedy, anti war, suspenseful, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
A montage of news footage illustrating a violent coup that is taking place in Nigeria, overthrowing the Presidential family and establishing a dictatorship under the rebel general Yakubu. The Fulani rebels then begin a violent ethnic cleansing campaign against the Ibo (Eebow) tribes in the southern region. We then join a squad of SH-60B Seahawk helicopters on approach to the USS Harry S. Truman off the coast of Africa, and a news reporter on the flight deck reporting on the coup taking place. His report is interrupted by the news of the whole presidential family being assassinated by rebel forces.Lieutenant Waters and his team of Navy SEALs disembark from a helicopter, returning from a mission to extract American citizens from the embassy. They are greeted by Captain Bill Rhodes on the deck who immediately informs them that they'll need to be reinserted to extract a critical personality immediately. After refitting for the next mission, eating and having their wounds tended by the medic they meet in the ships briefing room to get the details of their mission. They're instructed that they will Halo Jump over Cameroon and into the jungle outside of a small Catholic mission where they will find Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (an American citizen by marriage). Their secondary mission is to extract the priest and two nuns who run the mission if they are willing to go with them. Once they have their "package" they are to make a twelve kilometer hike to the designated extraction point where they'll be flown out by helicopter.The mission begins precisely as planned with the SEAL team dropping from the aircraft and free falling over the target area. After forcibly having a young Nigerian woman lead the SEALs to Kendricks, Waters informs Kendricks of the rebel company approaching the mission and that their orders are to extract U.S. personnel. Kendricks refuses to leave the mission without the people under her care. Waters contacts Rhodes to explore their options and after a short and ambiguous conversation concedes to the doctor that they will take the refugees that can move under their own power with them. Kendricks agrees and immediately begins to round up every able-bodied refugee to make the hike. Irritated and behind schedule the SEALs start to move out with the refugees after daybreak. Their journey proves to be slow and hindered as guiding forty injured and wounded refugees is a difficult task.After night has fallen they decide to take a short break to allow the refugees to rest and give Dr. Kendricks time to administer medication to those that need it. Waters has his team setup a defensive perimeter around the refugees. Moments after the perimeter is set, guerrilla rebels are rapidly approaching their position, with Waters stealthily killing a straggling tailgunner. Dr. Kendricks expresses her concern to Waters that the rebels are headed for the mission, but Waters is determined to carry out his orders and they continue on their way.They finally reach their landing zone and contact the helicopters that are en route. When the choppers land, Waters' initial plan becomes clear as the SEALs suddenly turn on the refugees and hold them at gun point. Waters forces Dr. Kendricks onto the helicopter and the SEAL team collapses back for a swift extraction. The refugees are left stranded in the middle of the jungle without any protection against rebel forces.During the flight back to the Truman, the helicopter crew and SEALS pass over the mission and discover that its been raided and destroyed just as Kendricks had predicted. Feeling a deep conviction, Waters orders the helicopter to turn around and regroup with the refugees. The SEALs decide on the spot to escort the refugees to the Cameroon border.During the trip, the SEALs discover that they are being tracked by a large body of rebel soldiers while using satellite scans of the area. Their pursuers are having mysterious success in their tracking of the SEALs. As they continuously attempt to escape and evade the rebels, they encounter a small village that is in the process of being destroyed and the residents executed, raped and murdered by rebel soldiers. Realizing that they have an opportunity to stop it, Waters orders the refugees to remain on the high ground while his team assaults the village. They execute their plan with surgical precision, eliminating the threat. During the aftermath of the assault, the SEAL team becomes morally conscious after seeing the after-effects of the atrocities.While continuing on their way, Slo determines that somebody within the group must be transmitting a signal that's allowing the rebels to identify their location and close in with incredible speed. It is then revealed that there is a surviving member of the Presidential family in their party, Samuel Azuka's son, Arthur, and that its very important for the rebels to ensure his death. A newer "refugee" is discovered in the group to have a transmitter on his person. He attempts to flee but is shot dead. Waters is angry at Dr. Kendricks because she knew all along about Arthur's true identity, yet never informed him.The SEALs unanimously continue to escort the refugees no matter what the cost is. A massive fire fight breaks out between the SEALs and the hundreds of rebels hidden in the trees. Soon the SEALs form a defensive line against the rebels as they order the refugees to retreat to the tree line where the Cameroon border is in sight. Zee radios in to the Truman for air support and two F/A-18 Hornets take off from the flight deck en route to their location.The SEALs continue to hold the line as they fall back to the refugees' location. However the overwhelming firepower of the rebels claims the lives of Slo, Flea, Lake and Silk. The refugees provide a small amount of cover fire as the remaining SEALs fall back into the reeds. During the battle, Waters, Red, and Zee are all wounded. The planes forming the airstrike radio in to their location. The SEALs mark the ground with a smoke grenade and order the pilots to fire on everything between the tree line and the smoke. Arthur and Dr. Kendricks are scrambling to the gate when they hear the thunderous roar of there bed on approach. They are terrified to see the planes drop a substantial payload on the rebel fighters. With the battlefield engulfed in fire, Arthur and Kendricks fear that the airstrike wiped out Waters' team.Waters, Zee, Doc and Red emerge from the grass as helicopters land on the other side of the Cameroon border as Captain Rhodes orders the guards to open the gate and let the SEALs and refugees in. A group of Marines then escort the SEALs to the helicopters where their wounds are tended to. Dr. Kendricks says her goodbyes to her friends and departs on the same helicopter with Waters.The final scene depicts the refugees recognizing Arthur as the tribal king and rightful heir to Nigeria, and he raises his hand exclaiming "Freedom!" as his fellow Nigerians celebrate around him. In the closing title, we see the quote "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" by Edmund Burke.

Review: 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.
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.
Many of these extras were showing genuine emotions which was captured on camera, as they relived traumatic moments in their lives when certain scenes were filmed.On that note, one scene in particular made for very difficult viewing, but totally in context and I would expect it would provoke a strong reaction from viewers, for good reason.
I would not say that this film was entertaining, it is very hard to watch but it is an example of good film that will challenge everyone who watches it and who has a conscience.After seeing this film, as with Hotel Rwanda and Tears of the Sun, I am constantly reminded of our individual and collective moral responsibilities in the 'civilised Western World' when atrocities are committed.
It's not entirely successful at the latter, but to even attempt to stray from typical Hollywood is admirable, and Tears of the Sun is often more hit than miss.Bruce Willis stars as A.K. Waters, the head of a mission to retrieve a Dr. Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci) from the Nigerian jungle, after Muslim rebels have just assassinated the presidential family, and are on a rampage throughout the country.
Waters reluctantly agrees, but soon finds that he and his group must trek the jungles with no assistance and with 300 Nigerian soldiers hot on their trail.Tears of the Sun works as a thoughtful film, but is more successful as a tension-builder.
Director Fuqua shows an able hand at building suspense to a feverish pitch, all the way to the concluding battle sequence, a fifteen minute setpiece that rivals any recent war film in both intensity and technical superiority.
The film's two best developed characters belong to Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci.
But when all is said and done, Tears of the Sun is highly recommended, a Hollywood film that has more on its mind than explosion and gunfights (which the movie still has an ample amount of)..
If you like sanitized action movies then this film might upset you a little.
It's not for those who think that war is about pushing buttons from hundreds of miles away or that all soldiers carry a copy of the Geneva Convention in their kit and consult it regularly.But if you like gritty, realistic action movies then this will not disappoint.And now....a small rant.Oh dear God!
So when we are presented with a story about a war in Africa, it only stands to reason that we must ask exactly why we see American soldiers.Bruce Willis gives a delightfully underacted performance as the leader of an infantry unit sent to retrieve a handful of American citizens.
The is a solid "war" movie with U.S. Navy Seals, led by Bruce Willis, rescuing an American doctor and 70 of her patients from war-torn Nigeria.
Some of the reasons for this are hinted at in the movie: greed, by the west hungry for oil and minerals and by the corrupted local officials, tribalism, which may be linked to religion although in my experience the tribe comes first, and especially the use of tribalism to foster greed, as in this film.The carnage shown at the mission and at the village are gripping illustrations of something that has been happening in Africa for ages and certainly will continue for many more years.
On the other hand, it gave a sense of Africa, and as such the music came much closer to illustrate the universality of the movie than did the story.Still related to topicality but in a different sense: the character of the doctor played by Monica Belluci was very unbelievable, especially if you consider that her husband was killed not that long ago in a similar situation in Sierra Leone.
Bruce Willis is always a good actor in intense situation movies, with his straight face, spunk, and how is natural charm always gets the girl.
Obasanjo ran in the elections of 1999 and won.What eats me about `Tears of the Sun' and other war films like it (`Behind Enemy Lines' comes to mind) is that just once I'd like to feel like I'm not watching an Army propaganda film.
I would think someone as big as bruce willis would look at this movie and laugh, he doesnt need the money, come on bruce pick a better script.
The first interesting thing comes into the plot about half way through the movie when we find out that the last living member of the presidents family is in the group bruce and his boys are trying to get out.
This is not one of them  not even close.Bruce Willis has starred in some of the best action movies ever made (Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable, 16 Blocks) where he also shows that he can truly act.
Oh, a couple of his men fall, heroes all, but Bruce with his coterie of favorites breaks through, and, with a little bit of help from a couple of convenient F-18 Hornets, by God and US Might, finally reach Safety on The Other Side of The Fence.And the last we see of Bruce is with the good doctor, she cradling his (only slightly) wounded body (and soul) as they both rise in the almost white Blackhawk chopper flying off into the sunset.Thankfully, this film is now forgotten by me; alas, it's not gone from the scene yet.
Seemed to have missed this Bruce Willis film and I was completely taken by surprise with the plot of the film, the photography and the great acting and action scenes are beyond words.
The way they move, how they attach suppressors without being told to, the tactics they use, the way they deploy to cover a large area with only eight men, the actual procedure of "peeling off" (retreating) later in the movie, and many other small details, are the closest I've ever seen that shows the general public what a deadly machine a real life SEAL team is.
Antoine Fuqua, director of `Training Day,' the critically successful film that garnished Denzel Washington an Academy Award for Best Actor, now brings us `Tears Of The Sun.' This film comes at a turbulent time in America with the possibility of war looming.
In `Tears Of The Sun,' Bruce Willis stars as a lieutenant assigned to rescue an American missionary working in a Nigerian jungle during a rebellion.
It comes to a point where Willis's character has to decide whether to simply follow orders and save Bellucci's character, or he can do the right thing and try to save the refugees from rebel troops who are invading the jungle.
For example, a scene where Bruce Willis tells his commander played by Tom Skerritt, over a satellite phone that he is going against the mission to save the lives of the refugees.
The target audience for `Tears' is primarily people who have come to see an action film, so why not give it to them?
It hit just about every war movie cliché I've ever seen and is loaded with badly developed characters, most predictable plot and nature shots which I'm convinced were bought form never used National Geographic footage.
Maybe it's me, but when you see Bruce Willis's name on a picture you at least expect a half decent action/adventure film even if the plot, and everything else isn't all that new or creative.
Unfortunately, what you get in Tears of the Sun (TOS), is an attempt at teaching us how brutal the conditions are in Africa during the time period in which the film takes place.Main Gripes:-After the first 10 minutes of the film you start to wonder if you've missed the first hour of the movie.
Its amazing how many people downrate this movie because it has little action...that really shows their intellect and taste in movies, or should I say no taste.Tears of the Sun is in a league of its own, the cruel reality of the African world is depicted in this dramatic military film.Im an Army Ranger, and I have to say this is by far one of the best military movies ive ever seen.
"Tears of the Sun" is a rare war movie in that it makes the audience feel strongly about saving lives.
The Choice for Bruce Willis and Monica Belucci was the best in my opinion.The movie in short just has everything in place, the soundtrack was just beautiful(beautiful being an understatement!).
Bruce Willis stoically heads up a team of special ops soldiers who are sent into a war torn region of Africa to rescue a doctor (Monica Belucci) from a missionary camp.
One of the best depictions of what it's really like in a civil war in Africa, I remember Rwanda on the news and that was horrendous, this movie doesn't push it that far or it would have been R rated, the actors done a great job of depicting the struggle between what's right and orders.
Movie Review: "Tears Of The Sun" (2003)This technically-flawless war-action-movie directed Antoine Fuqua, who chose his follow-up picture to "Training Day" (2001) in order to work with Hollywood Star Bruce Willis, portraying Lieutenant A.K. Waters as leader of a team of Navy Seals special forces with facial-striking concerns, who needs to enter hostile rebel territory in central Nigeria, when a fictitiously post-civil-war, in the 1960s, collapsing democratic government gets over-run by an ultra-violent rebel army, who kills every rural villages in their path to control further regions of natural resources for an international black market, when the Seals team gets the assignment to retrieve a solely operating female Doctor with no further background story, performed by put-into-emotional-restraints actress Monica Bellucci, in the deepest green jungle scenarios of highly-visceral machine-gun combat action captured in excellent-executed visuals by cinematographer Mauro Fiore, who can not save the picture produced by high-scale war-action-pushing Producer Ian Bryce from falling short by being pretentious in its simple conception of just bringing a western-educated academic woman into safety from a constant-raging guerilla war tactics, when denied visualization of aftermath village massacres in population-starving agony gets exchanged for continuous suspense-loss, out-going from a thin originally-conceived screenplay by writers Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo, who hardly found an emotional peak to make "Tears Of The Sun" stand out from a crowd of modern warfare motion pictures.Nevertheless boot-camp-prepared supporting cast members including Cole Hauser, Eamonn Walker and Tom Skerritt as combat-jet-carrier stationed Captain Bill Rhodes put authentic U.S. military atmosphere in the high-profile Columbia Pictures presented movie, when talented director Antoine Fuqua avoids to break free from the shooting draft to improvise a desperately needed bonding scene between extreme-situations-enduring main characters of Lieutenant Waters and Doctor Kendricks; the showdown stays visually compelling in a sky-rocketing bullet-storms and a massive napalm explosion, mimicking obviously a superior "Apocalypse Now" (1979) opening shot, when this war-action-movie fades again in forfeited consequence of an important opportunity to put out an "Anti-War-Campaigning" post-curtains-enduring message into "Tears Of The Sun" with respects to a still-war-struggled continent of Africa.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend
The fact that she is possibly the most beautiful woman alive doesn't hurt in attracting you to this film.The first part of the movie is the character of Bruce Willis' dilemma of committing to duty or doing the right thing.
This is the best war movie I have ever seen and the first that I actually liked so I would to send my congratulations to the director and the amazing job the actors did!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read my comment and continue making great movies like that!!.
I knew I was guaranteed excitement and explosions with Bruce Willis involved in a war\action flick, but I wasn't prepared for his outstanding performance, a huge strong cast alongside him and a punishing film which highlights the pain and genocide that Africa struggles with year after year.Antoine Fuqua directs in epic style, with fantastic backdrops, big camera sweeps and hugely powerful scenes.
He shows again that he can more than ably deliver the quality and cinematic style that he did with Training Day. The movie is powerful and compelling and beautifully filmed.Willis had hold of this story from 1995 and it seems a passionate piece for him, and I find that quite amazing that not only can he give it up so easily to a new Director, but that he also produces such a restrained and controlled performance.
In fact there are scenes that are deliberately non-Hollywood, and from what the Director and Willis have said, they wanted to keep it that way.Overall this movie is excellent.
I went to the theater tonight to watch Tears of the Sun. I am a big Bruce Willis Fan, I own all of his movies, and if you are not, you might be after this movie.
This movie takes place in Africa where tribal warfare is going on and people are getting killed off because of what others believe in and because of ethnic cleansing.
And a group of Navy Seals lead by Lieutenant A.K. Waters(Bruce Willis) is put on a mission to go to a small village in Africa in order to bring back a priest and few doctors.
However one very good thing about the movie is that it opens by and gets underway straight away without wasting any time and dives straight into the action.
Both Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci were excellent and everyone who played a marine although the script felt a little basic and the bads guys just felt like stereotypical bad guys and it just became good vs bad Hollywood type of movie.
some people felt it was just another war movie but i believe it was different in the fact that it was not about Vietnam or ww2 or something we've seen a hundred times.
And the ending was so Hollywood with everything happen just yards from the other country's border.FINAL VERDICT: I like war movies, but this one doesn't have a very good plot.
The acting was great, although Bruce Willis is becoming a big aged to be playing real major action roles, but its still a great movie.
No thought needed for this formulaic plot: it's the usual Bruce Willis action tear jerker from Hollywood where the troops do the right thing and end up dying in the process.
Tears of the Sun is a typical heroic action military film with a predictable main military styled theme, going against your orders and the mission because you feel it's not the right thing to do, and a lot of explosions and brutal war scenes.
It's difficult to do a Military action movie without having a lot of the same main ideas of, going against orders for the greater good, brotherhood of war, sacrifice, and dramatic bravery that are all scene in Tears of the Sun. A movie like Training Day can be unpredictable and exciting with several twists and you can have an unexpected ending.
As soon as Waters turned that helicopter around to go back for the patients, it just seemed like the movie became a ticking time bomb for that explosion of the "final battle" that all military movies have where the main character (Bruce Willis) will get shot like 12 times and still be able to run around and carry his wounded men on his back while getting blown up by rockets and killing hundreds of enemy soldiers at the same time.
Watching this movie, the audience knows that Waters and Dr. Hendricks are going to make it out alive, which is quite predictable, but at the same time it would be upsetting if he were to die at the end so it just seems like there was no chance of getting that stomach turning ending that everyone wants.
Who doesn't like watching Bruce Willis running through the flaming jungle destroying everything in his path, looking invincible and getting shot more than anyone else in the whole movie combined, seeming to just be getting stronger and blooded as the battle goes on?
No matter how predictable the film turned out to be, I will admit the action scenes were exciting and that fact is attributed to Bruce Willis and his unstoppable rampage through the jungle.
01/01/2019 I enjoyed this Bruce Willis movie like I always do, but the military actions within the storyline would never have ever taken place as the we're all good guys and don't follow orders fantasies portrayed.
(I can say ass cause they say it on TV) Tho it was not of the same caliber as Black Hawk Down it was better than that long winded The Thin Red Line, which by the way I own and have tried to watch a handful of times and have never been able to get all the way through.Bruce Willis is one of those actors that people love to hate and there is no reason why.
But, maybe that's what his character was like...not letting on the pain.But, at any rate, I thought it was a good movie, a little touching, maybe even a little too sappy at times, but it was alright.
With all that's going on in the world these past couple of years, the last thing movie goers want to see is another film about war on foreign soil.
I just saw Tears of the Sun - Bruce Willis new movie!
it's so now type of film due to whats happening in west africa at the momentIt Bruce's best movie since Pulp Fiction..
I expected a run of the mill, Bruce Willis action movie..
One of the coolest war movies I've seen I a while and a role I liked to see Bruce Willis in.