TEARS OF THE SUN
Year: 2003
USA: Columbia Pictures
UK: Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
Cast: Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser, Fionnula Flanagan, Johnny Messner, Tom Skerritt, Malick Bowens, Rodney Charles, Nick Chinlund, Bourke Floyd, Paul Francis, Charles Ingram, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Pierrino Mascarino, Sammi Rotibi, Chad Smith, Eamonn Walker
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Country: USA
UK: 121 mins
USA Rated: R for strong war violence, some brutality and language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong violence, language, and battle horror
USA Release Date: 7 March 2003
UK Release Date: 12 September 2003
Synopsis
Director Antoine Fuqua, who took us on a gritty, realistic journey through the mean streets of Los Angeles in the Oscar®-winning TRAINING DAY, now brings us a fictional but unflinching account of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds in TEARS OF THE SUN, starring Bruce Willis.
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees.
When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician, Dr Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci).
Dr Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage, is tending to the victims of the ongoing civil war at a Catholic mission in a remote village. When Waters arrives, however, Dr Kendricks refuses to leave unless he promises to help deliver the villagers to political asylum at the nearby border. If they are left behind, they will be at the mercy of the enormous rebel army.
Waters is under strict orders from his commanding officer Captain Bill Rhodes (Tom Skerritt) to remain disengaged from the conflict. But as he and his men witness the brutality of the rebels first-hand, they are won over to Dr Kendricks' cause and place their lives at risk by agreeing to escort the villagers on a perilous trek through the dense jungle.
As they move through the countryside on foot, Waters' team, experts at evasion and concealment, are inexplicably and ferociously pursued by an army of rebels. They are confounded until they discover that, among the refugees, is the sole survivor of the country's previous ruling family, whom the rebels have been ordered to eliminate at all costs. Waters and his small band of soldiers must weigh the life of one man against their own and the refugees they feel obliged to protect.