Tears of the Sun (2003, Bruce Willis) – Classic Film Review 962

Director Antoine Fuqua’s 2003 serious-minded action thriller finds Bruce Willis on good form as a gung-ho US Navy SEAL lieutenant in Africa. But he finds that ‘God has already left Africa’ when he leads his unit into Nigeria to rescue gorgeous doctor Monica Bellucci, who is under imminent impending threat from a rebel army. But she won’t leave unless he disobeys his CO (Tom Skerritt) and saves her patients as well.

While director Fuqua’s gung-ho actioner is being thoughtful and serious, it unfortunately tends to get dour and stodgy. But, as the refugees trek into the jungle towards safety and the battle action kicks in, it’s very capably staged and exciting.

Without his usual smirking, tongue-in-cheek delivery or toupée, Willis looks grim, but that’s the role, and he plays the troubled hero very credibly and convincingly. Politics, war, religion and American intervention overseas are controversial red-hot potatoes in an uncomfortable and flawed but provocative and electric film, whose screenplay was once intended as Die Hard 4.

Fuqua is the director of Training Day, King Arthur and Olympus Has Fallen (2013).

http://derekwinnert.com/training-day-2001-denzel-washington-best-actor-oscar-classic-film-review-970/

http://derekwinnert.com/king-arthur-2004-clive-owen-classic-movie-review-954/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 962 derekwinnert.com