Tears of the Sun

I watched this movie for the first time tonight. I've had it for a while but never watched it for personal reasons. For some reason, I am totally turned off to SEAL movies because they are mostly over-dramatizations, which poorly portray the warrior mystique that surrounds the Teams, and incorrectly shows them as animals, or inhuman robots. They normally just leave a bad taste in my mouth. But I was bored and had been through the rest of my collection a dozen times and didn't want to drive the 15 miles to the nearest town to rent a movie (the other edge of the "living-in-the-country" sword).

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a lot of technical accuracy to the movie. They (for the most part) wore the correct uniforms and used the correct weapons. They even had the boat crew the correct size (eight men). A full lieutenant commanding an eight-man squad was kind of unrealistic but it was not that big of a deal. They also used SH-60 Seahawk helos flying off of the helicopter, complete with dipping sonars and Magnetic Anomoly Detectors. This made me raise an eyebrow, especially seeing that each carrier has a pair of HH-60 Rescue Hawks which can support SPECWAR operations. Again, not that big of a deal. Nobody who has not sailed in navy gray would notice this technicality.

 

Operationally, the mission seemed like a normal operation other than war. That they inserted via HALO from a C-2 Grayhound made me raise an eyebrow, but again no big deal. There is something sexy about parachuting special ops dudes, but something even more mysterious and attractive about a free-fall jumper. It was creative license, but not one that was gross. On a real-world three-day op, everyone would have been wearing a 3-day assault pack, or other type of pack, but again, that was not tat big of a deal. It did make me question where they carried all their spare ammo and grenades and rations and things like that. Again, nothing that was overly erronous. Operators are used to traveling light, especially for this type of mission.

 

Now, the mission appears to be quite straight forward. Insert into a hostile territory and extract three personalities before they are killed by hostile insurgents. The personalities are an Italian-born yet American physician, a Catholic priest and two nuns. They are running a medical mission in Nigeria, in western Africa that is rife with revolution and Christian/Muslim ethnic cleansing that is more along tribal than religous lines. In the end only the Italian-born physician, Dr. Kendrick, leaves with the operators.

 

I especially liked Bruce Willis playing Lieutenant Waters as the commander. He was slightly aloof, always in control, and definitely the dominating personality. It was clear that his men respected him and would follow him. His part drove the movie. His interaction was played very well between him and the "personality" and with his men. He was no-nonsense yet respected their skills and truly built the team.

 

At first Dr. Kendrick does not want to leave her charges and refuses to go alone. As a way to complete the mission, LT Waters lies to Dr. Kendrick and tells her that they will also be able to extract the walking-wounded of the indigenous personnel and move them to Cameroon where there are refugee camps for them, just across the border line. To most, it might go over their heads, but this just goes into the fact that the mission is paramount. The operator always completes the mission, no matter what. This includes moral/ethical manipulation to make it so. On the outside it appears harmless.

 

A turning point in the movie is when they are flying back to the carrier, the mission virtually complete, and they overfly the mission that they had left not 48-hours before. Every man, woman and child had been killed in the mission. I don't know what was going on inside LT Water's mind, but obviously something changes in him. Perhaps he snaps. Perhaps he's had enough of sitting on the sidelines and not caring about anything else beside the mission. Perhaps, he has sensing deeper, a chemistry, between himself and Dr. Kendrick. Perhaps He simply is tired of not giving a shit.

 

But, no matter the reasons, Waters turns the helicopters around and lands back in the field where they had left the indigenous personnel to die on their own in the field, either from exposure or from roving bands of insurgents. He loads the helicopters up with the elderly, sick and young and then begins a cross-country trek to Cameroon, on a new mission. He states "same mission" but it is obvious that it is a new one. This is not a military mission though. This is a mission of the heart. A mission of conscience.

 

There is a distinctive shift in priorities, the mission, and the outlook of the operators. The refugees are no longer objects or "packages". They becme real human beings, and it is a common story line of the strong protector/provider but one that is still valid. The operators surround them like the cautious and dangerous mother lion who protects her pride. This also opens the operators up to a whole new world, from simply the mission, to something else, which some of them most likely had forgotten.

 

It is a good movie that speaks to conscience and ethics. They see that they have a higher mission as a member of humanity, than simply being operators. The operators know that they have special skills and strengths, and they decide to use them for good. They see their new mission, as one of humans, as men of honor.

 

Towards the end of the movie LT Waters and Zeke (I'm not sure if he is an officer/CWO or a chief petty officer but Zeke definitely is the 2nd in command) have a conversation. Zeke (who is black) talks about his ancestry and personal responsibility and says "For all the times that we were told to stand by and stand down. You're doing the right thing, ell-tee." Waters responds with "For our sins".

 

This speaks of a definitive amends that they are making. The history of the men is vague and not a part of the movie, but it would appear that they are all warriors. They fight because it is what they do. It is how they are trained. Perhaps they had turned their conscience off to get the job done. Perhaps they became jaded. Perhaps they became too closely aligned with the act of war, without looking beyond the actual actions that they take.

 

In escorting and protecting the refugees to the border, and to safety, the operators see this as their chance to redeem themselves. We're not quite sure in who's eyes that they are redeeming themselves in, or for what wrongs they are making amends for, but there are deep overtones of honor, integrity and rectitude (making the right decision).

 

What interested me most in the movie, was the loyalty. There was a chemistry among the men that seemed realistic, hard-edged and very real. LT Waters who is the aloof, in control, commander who takes responsibility. After an engagement, Waters takes personal responsibility for one of his men being killed by screaming "My fault! My Fault! My Fault!" His death drives Waters even harder to complete the mission, in order to make his mens' death to have not been in vain.

 

Zeke is the faithful 2nd in command, and a radioman. He offers words of caution and wisdom, tempering Waters command authority. He provides a not-contradictory, but a different side of the story. Doc is the corpsman, who is both a shooter and a medical corpsman. He performs his mission well and the protrayal is accurate. Flea and Silk are the sharpshooters. They are methodical and ever loyal. Red is a machine-gunner and the demolitions man. Slo is the techno-guy who tracks the badguys with a laptop computer. Lake is the hard-edged warrior scout. He does not agree with the mission and thinks they should get out, but he is loyal. That is interesting. Even when he thinks they are making a mistake, he remains loyal to his commanding officer, even giving his life for the mission that he did not believe in.

 

Captain Bill Rhodes is the SEAL commander aboard the carrier. He is upset and does not comprehend the dillemma that Waters is in, but still offers support. That is also interesting. I think perhaps Rhodes as been away from the front lines for too long, but also respects the command decisions of his people on the ground. That is common among the Teams and speaks well for both the "upper management" and the guys with their boots on the ground.

 

In the end, half of the team are killed getting the refugees to Cameroon. They get them there and this seems to be the climatic end of a personal moral journey for a group of warriors. At the end, Dr. Lena Kendricks kisses Waters on the forehead and I think speaks of an obvious intimacy between the two. There definitely is a raw chemistry between the two throughout the movie.

 

Before the credits roll, they post a quote by Edmund Burke: "The only thing required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

 

That sums up the movie. It also sums up the journey that every man must make. Some push it down and never know what honor is. Some refuse to accept the challenge. Some fold under the challenge, but the underlying current of the movie is as old as time, but just as valid today as it was thousands of years ago: "there are bad people in this world. There are good people in this world. Someone needs to protect the good people from the bad. If not me who? If not now when? If I sit back I am just as guilty as the one murdering."

 

Two thumbs up for the movie.