2003 / 118 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

You know, a really harrowing and intense film could be made about the mass genocides and political unrest that happens all too frequently in regions of Central Africa. Unfortunately, “Tears of the Sun” ain’t it.

Instead, “Tears of the Sun” is a paint-by-numbers war drama that has one harrowing sequence in it. That sequence comes about mid-way through the film when a team of soldiers comes upon a village being decimated by rebels. There is true anguish and heartbreak in this scene and it’s the only thing in the film that comes close to hitting a vein of honesty. We see piles of people who are dead simply because they were of a different religion. We see a woman whose breasts have been hacked off with a machete so she could not nurse another “infidel”. This is harrowing stuff, and important stuff. This is, frankly, stuff that deserves to be treated somberly and in a better movie, a movie that would be more like “Schindler’s List” in Central Africa. But instead, the movie switches from this scene back into paint-by-numbers war mode and, once again, attempts to put the viewer to sleep. I don’t think I need to tell you what a shame that is.

“Tears of the Sun” is so generic that it seems to have been written by throwing darts at a board. “We need a war-torn location.” Thunk. “Nigeria.” “Okay, now we need a lead actor.” Thunk. “Bruce Willis. Good. Now we need a plot.” Thunk. “Saving Private Ryan. Excellent. Now go make your war movie.” There was probably a little more to it than this, but there couldn’t have been much more. The plot of the film involves a group of soldiers sent into Nigeria to extract Americans who are working at a mission there. The doctor at the mission (Monica Bellucci) will not leave unless the refugees of her mission are taken with her. So Bruce tells her that they will be. But when they get to their extraction point, Bruce pulls a fast one and slips the good doctor into the helicopter, leaving the refugees behind. Soon afterward, Bruce has a change of heart and makes the helicopters turn around to get everyone else. I personally felt that this moment came far too early in the film. This is the main character’s big “change of heart” moment and it comes a half an hour in. Therefore, the next hour and a half is nothing but falling action. They walk through the jungle, then they get shot at and shoot back (hardly ever seeming to hit anything). This is it for the rest of the movie. They walk through the jungle and then they get shot at and give fight. They walk through the jungle and then they get shot at and so on and so forth. There is a brief timeout for that harrowing moment at the decimated village, but otherwise this is the procedure.

“Tears of the Sun” is lucky to have such strong actors as Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. They are given paper-thin, stock characters but they are so good that they invest even them with a thimble-full of emotion. Every other actor in the film is not so lucky. This is one of those annoying movies that forgot to give the characters dimensions, so they put some tragic-sounding music over the deaths of characters to let you know that you were supposed to care about them. That’s just lazy. It’s also a movie that pads its length with shots of fog rising over mountains and shots of monkeys in trees. Also, the battles are shot in such a way that you are never quite sure where anything is or what might actually be going on. Perhaps now you understand the myriad problems this film has heaped upon it. In retrospect, it never really had a chance.

Like I said, “Tears of the Sun” has some of the raw materials of a great movie but, instead, it’s a great mess.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2003 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.