Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson are excellent as usual in their roles: two old friends from Vietnam whose careers took different courses after a firefight that badly injured Jones. Jackson's Marines rescue a cowardly ambassador and his family from an embassy pelted with rocks, insults and the occasional sniper's bullet. In return for this service, the ambassador will testify that Jackson lost control and opened fire on a crowd full of unarmed civilians, because his superior at the Department of State thinks he should to save the American reputation in the Middle East.
The basic story is good and the actors have amazing presence, but there are a number of amusing inconsistencies in the script, like:
1) Dale Dye, as Samuel L. Jackson's commanding officer, asks him whether he wants private counsel or the base legal office to represent him (if you watch this in a theater full of military personnel, expect this line to be among the funniest in the film). This occurs right in the middle of him briefing the man whose court-martial he will convene, which happens absolutely never.
2) Why didn't anyone analyze the bullet holes in the embassy wall to establish trajectory?
3) How the hell do you find a Vietnamese company captain from an action that occurred thirty years ago with no sort of attention at any previous time? (This probably makes no sense to you if you haven't seen it, and it really won't in the film, except to make the point that even officers on opposing sides have the common trait of valuing their troops' lives more than anything else on the field of battle.)
The conflict between functions of state and defense isn't as implausible as the reviewers appear to think, particularly in a time when we deploy our soldiers and Marines to the world's least desirable corners as beat cops. Whether you set this story in Yemen or Kosovo or somewhere else, it can happen, it has happened and will probably continue to happen. State wants its wars to resolve neatly into ends comfortably discussed in meetings over tea, and gets annoyed when Defense reminds them that rules of engagement always make room for an exception necessary for saving lives.
Rent it before you buy it.
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Facing a court martial after the peacekeeping mission he led in Yemen ends in disaster, Col. Terry Childers turns to Hays Hodges, a lawyer whose life he saved in Vietnam.Genre: Feature Film-Action/AdventureRating: RRelease Date: 28-MAR-2006Media Type: DVD
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