The plot revolves around a mission by US Navy SEALs to go into a hostile area of Nigeria and rescue an American doctor. The doctor (Monica Bellucci) is living at Mission, taking care of sick and dying Nigerians. Getting the doctor out is only a minor hassle, the real trouble begins when Willis' characters internal struggles of following orders vs. doing what is right get the best of him and he decides to try and save all the Nigerian patients. From there all hell breaks loose and there are a few surprises before the end.

As I said before, this is not your normal action movie. It doesn't go gonzo on the special effects and explosions, but obviously this is a war movie and there is plenty of violence near the end. The thing is, by the time people do start dying, you will care. On a side note, there are several parts of the movie that are unrealistic (the main one being a Navy SEAL going against explicit orders from his commanding officer), but these can be easily forgiven and overlooked.

The combat depicted is on par with the best recent war movies, such as Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers. It's very realistic. The "grand finale" battle at the end is a pretty intense 30 minutes, and is best experienced at a theater with good sound. Overall, this is a very satisfying movie that is worth the exorbitant ticket prices these days.


Tears [of the Sun]   March 10, 2003
 50 out of 58 found this review helpful

Tears of the Sun brings Bruce Willis back to the rebel-with-a-cause-and-a-big-gun role. This isn't a date movie. Lots of guerrilla combat, lots of blood and a subplot that is revealed only well into the movie -- and I won't spoil it for you. If the basic plot is nothing new, the film comes together very well, and it outclasses a lot of other action flicks.

Willis (as Lt. Waters) leads his men into Nigeria to rescue an American doctor. In a fit of conscience, after having achieved his mission, Waters orders his choppers to return so that he can rescue the band of doomed refugees. We feel good about that. Especially after seeing what the Nigerian rebels did to the hospital after Waters and company evacuated. If you accept that a special forces lieutenant would disobey orders and follow his conscience, the rest of the story unfolds well.

Visually, Tears of the Sun is a stunner. You will feel as though you spent a couple of hours in the rain forest. Some of the gorier scenes look like the sort of thing that might be omitted from news coverage of such events, but it was enough for me. The pace is intense -- not much time spent chatting around the campfire. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the military operations, but Willis is very credible in this role, and realism tends to win out over dramatic licence. At least until the final sequences.

If you like action films with at least a layer of human interest, you will probably enjoy Tears of the Sun. It falls short only in the ways most desperation mission movies do -- some narrow escapes that require us to be grateful for our heroes without overanalyzing. ... But the overall writing is quite good. ...

Tears of the Sun may not be the film of the year, but it holds together well and kept the audience absorbed. It shows American soldiers as capable, confident and caring. That's a good image, and one that sends you home thinking that our men and women in uniform can do a lot of good.


Tears of the Sun is well worth seeing   March 10, 2003
 27 out of 29 found this review helpful

Tears of the Sun is a first class war movie in the realistic style of Black Hawk Down. The plot centers on a mission by US Navy SEALs to rescue an American doctor at a mission in Nigeria during a civil war.
Bruce Willis stars as the officer commanding the SEAL detachment. He and the other actors potraying SEALs received training from real SEALs and, therefore, come across as authentic instead of the usual Hollywood portayal of speical operators as undiscplined psychopaths.
The level of violence in this movie is high as expected in a war movie, but it is never exaggerated or cartoonish. Neither is it included just to keep the excitement level up. Instead, violence is portrayed as the inevitable product of war and is shown realistically as real human suffering.
The movie is very tightly edited and moves quickly. There are no long periods of chatter and no padding. The movie gets right into the story it intends to tell and moves along quickly. I was surprised when the movie ended that 2 hours had actually passed.
The battle scenes are clearly the product of some considerable effort at realism. The good guys are not invincible and the bad guys are not incompetent. Weapons effects are realistic, not exaggerated. Wounds are authentically gory, but not overdone for effect's sake.
In conclusion. Tears of the Sun attempts to paint a believeable picture of believable human beings in a frightening and brutal situation. It is one of the finest war movies I have seen and I recommend it highly to anyone who likes the genre.


Evil will triumph when good men do nothing   April 24, 2003
 27 out of 32 found this review helpful

Director Antoine Fuqua never realized how timely his tale would be. Tears of the Sun is yet another war movie, but it is put together well, plus it delivers a strong message without being preachy.

Bruce Willis takes on a new direction (ok, he doesn't) as Lt. AK Waters, a hardened, war-weary commander sent to rescue an American doctor in the jungles of Nigeria. His by-the-book approach to his mission becomes tested after witnessing the atrocities committed against the unarmed townspeople and the missionaries with them. Waters later discovers there is a lot more at stake than simply the mission and his men.

The real scene-stealer is Monica Belluci as Doctor Lena Kendricks. Taking the new #1 spot on my 'most beautiful' list, I fear she may have been miscast simply for the fact that she's so damn good-looking I couldn't pay attention to the movie. The photography is spectacular, the action scenes are riveting, and Hans Zimmer's masterful composition enhances the movie perfectly.

A lot of criticism has been leveled at this movie for being jingoistic, probably because the commandos are actually competent. Others focused on the supposed love interest between Willis and Belluci. I'm not sure these criticisms are even relevant, but I will say that the make-up work (especially in the finale) borders on halloween funny. Regardless, if you can look past this and the all too familiar cast, (right down to Tom Skerritt as the "Captain"), you'll agree that the moral dilemma presented by Fuqua is forcefully and powerfully delivered, even if you don't necessarily agree with the decisions made.


Decent action flick   October 21, 2003
 21 out of 34 found this review helpful

"Tears of the Sun" tries to be a big commentary on the plight of Africa, and in some instances it does do that. You get to see the execution of civilians and the persecutions and violations of missionaries, civilians, and otherwise unarmed, unthreatening individuals...events that are altogether too real, especially in areas such as the Congo today.

However, it does suffer in overdramatizing some parts or just drawing things out. Monica Belucci's character was really annoying, and in the middle of the movie I think Bruce and the gang should have left her for the Nigerian commandos and kept the civilians....

REGARDS TO THE DVD --

The notes on Africa are fun to watch, as long as you have some free time. My dad and I watched this movie the whole way through then watched it again muted and with the little pop-ups coming up.

The good news is that you learn some facts about Africa and the crisis involved in many nations and some of the recent events that "Tears of the Sun" speaks about.

The bad news is two-fold: it goes into heavy detail about women being raped to the point where you can only imagine they're making up facts. Also, my father is military background and found a few errors in the notes' input:

-- The SEALS were the *Navy* equivalent to the Green Berets, not the *Marine*. Maybe thats why they're called the Navy SEALS...
-- The operation in the movie is called an NEO and not an NCO. NEO stands for Non-combatant Evacuation Operation. NCO stands for Non-Commissioned Officer.