Rules of Engagement

Rules of Engagement is a 2000 American war and legal drama film, directed by William Friedkin, written by Stephen Gaghan, from a story by Jim Webb, and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays U.S. Marine Colonel Terry Childers, who is brought to court-martial after men under Childers' orders kill many civilians outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen.
==Plot==
In 1968 during the Vietnam War, a disastrous American advance leaves U.S. Marine Lieutenant Hayes Hodges wounded and his men dead. His squadmate Lieutenant Terry Childers executes a North Vietnamese prisoner to intimidate a captive officer into calling off a mortar attack on Hodges’ position; sparing the officer’s life, Childers rescues Hodges. In 1996, Hodges, now a colonel, is set to retire after 28 years as a JAG officer. At his pre-retirement party at the Camp Lejeune Officers Club, he is honored by his old friend, Colonel Terry Childers, now the commanding officer of a Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Childers and his unit are deployed to Southwest Asia as part of an Amphibious Readiness Group, called to evacuate the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen when a routine anti-American demonstration at the embassy erupts in rock-throwing, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire. Escorting Ambassador Mourain and his family safely to a helicopter, Childers retrieves the embassy's American flag. Under heavy fire from snipers on nearby rooftops, three Marines are killed, and Childers orders his men to open fire on the crowd, resulting in the deaths of 83 irregular Yemeni soldiers and civilians, including children; the remaining Marines and embassy staff are saved.
U.S. National Security Advisor Bill Sokal pressures the military to court-martial Childers, hoping to salvage American relations in the Middle East by placing all blame for the incident on the colonel. Childers asks Hodges to serve as his defense attorney, and he reluctantly accepts. Hodges rejects a plea deal from the prosecutor, Major Biggs, who is convinced of Childers’ guilt but privately refuses to consider the death penalty. With little time to prepare a defense, Hodges goes to Yemen, where witnesses and police claim that the Marines fired first on the unarmed crowd. Visiting the abandoned embassy and some of the wounded, he notices an undamaged security camera and scattered audio cassette tapes.
Returning to the U.S., Hodges confronts Childers about the complete lack of evidence to support his version of events, resulting in a fistfight. Sokal burns a videotape revealing the crowd was armed and fired on the Marines, and forces Mourain to lie on the stand that the crowd was peaceful, and that Childers ignored his orders and was violent and disrespectful to him and his family. Hodges meets with Mourain’s wife, who admits Childers acted valiantly but refuses to testify. Captain Lee, who hesitated to follow Childers’ order, is unable to testify to having seen gunfire from the crowd. A Yemeni doctor testifies that the tapes Hodges found are propaganda inciting violence against Americans, but declares the protest was peaceful.
With Sokal on the stand, Hodges presents a shipping manifest proving that the tape from the undamaged camera – the tape Sokal burned – was delivered to Sokal's office but disappeared, with footage that would likely have exonerated Childers. Taking the stand, Childers explains that he was the only surviving Marine able to see the crowd was armed. On cross-examination, Biggs goads Childers into admitting to his poor choice of words when giving his order. Childers loses his temper, declaring that he would not sacrifice the lives of his men to appease the likes of Biggs, to Hodges’ dismay.
The prosecution presents Colonel Binh Le Cao, the Vietnamese officer whose life he spared, as a rebuttal witness, testifying that Childers executed an unarmed prisoner of war. During Hodges’ cross-examination, Cao agrees that Childers took action to save American lives, and that if circumstances were reversed, Cao would have done the same. After the trial, Hodges confronts Sokal about the missing tape, vowing to uncover the truth. Childers is found guilty of the minor charge of breach of peace, but cleared of conduct unbecoming an officer, and murder; Biggs approaches Hodges about investigating Childers’ actions in Vietnam, but Hodges declines to testify. Leaving the courthouse, Cao and Childers salute each other.
An epilogue reveals that Sokal was found guilty of destroying evidence and Mourain of perjury, both losing their jobs, while Childers retired honorably.
==Cast==
*Tommy Lee Jones as Hays Lawrence "Hodge" Hodges II
*Samuel L. Jackson as Terry L. Childers
*Guy Pearce as Mark Biggs
*Ben Kingsley as Ambassador Mourain
*Bruce Greenwood as Bill Sokal
*Anne Archer as Mrs. Mourain
*Blair Underwood as Capt Lee
*Philip Baker Hall as Hays Lawrence Hodges
*Dale Dye as Maj Gen Perry
*Mark Feuerstein as Tom Chandler
*Richard McGonagle as E. Warner
*Baoan Coleman as Binh Le Cao
*Nicky Katt as Hays Lawrence Hodges III
*Ryan Hurst as Capt Hustings
*Gordon Clapp as Harris
==Production==
The script was based on an original screenplay by James Webb, who developed it with Scott Rudin. William Friedkin was hired to direct, but had trouble collaborating with Webb on script rewrites. Rudin passed the project over to Richard Zanuck, who then hired Stephen Gaghan to work on the screenplay. Webb hated Gaghan's work and frustrated the filmmaker's attempts to receive cooperation from the Department of Defense, which was eventually obtained nonetheless. Location shooting took place in Morocco, Nokesville, Virginia, Warrenton, Virginia (military base scenes), Hunting Island, South Carolina (Vietnam scenes), and Mount Washington, Virginia (Gen. Hodges' estate scenes).
==Reception==
===Critical===
The film received negative reviews upon release, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it 36%, and some critics stating "the script is unconvincing and the court room drama dull." The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee described it as "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood."
Director William Friedkin, however, dismissed accusations that the film was racist:
Friedkin later stated the film "was a box office hit but many critics saw it as jingoism". He says that James Webb later saw the film on the recommendation of his friend Colonel David Hackworth; Webb then rang Friedkin to say how much he liked it.
Category:2000s films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Films directed by William Friedkin
Category:Films starring Tommy Lee Jones
Category:Films starring Samuel L. Jackson
Category:2000 drama films
Category:2000s legal films
Category:2000s mystery films
Category:American films
Category:American legal drama films
Category:American mystery films
Category:American political drama films
Category:English-language films
Category:Military courtroom films
Category:Films shot in Morocco
Category:Films shot in Virginia
Category:Films shot in South Carolina
Category:Films set in Yemen
Category:Films about the United States Marine Corps
Category:Vietnam War films
Category:Films produced by Scott Rudin
Category:Films with screenplays by Stephen Gaghan
Category:Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck
Category:Films scored by Mark Isham
Category:Action
Category:Drama
Category:Mystery
Category:War
Category:Films on VHS
Category:Films on DVD
Category:Pages containing Mature Content
Category:2:35:1 Aspect Ratio Films
Category:2:39:1 Aspect Ratio Films
Category:The Zanuck Company films