A work friend came over for a movie the other night saying he'd stop and pick something up on the way over. I should have known better as this is a guy who has argued to me that the Rambo sequels progressively improved on the original - which he describes as a "classic". But what the heck. He showed up with Tears of the Sun - a movie I didn't have much interest in spending money on, so I hadn't seen it.
In this movie, a team of Navy SEALs is sent to rescue an American doctor from a village in a war torn West African country (jungles, genocide, the works) because enemy forces are approaching it and burning all in their wake. They do a night drop into jungle terrain (extremely dangerous and - as Andrew can attest - generally avoided by the military if possible) and sneak up on the village. They pick up the doctor and take along a throng of villagers at her insistance. They have to march 12 miles through jungle terrain crawling with enemy soldiers to a pre-designated helicopter landing zone. Logic dictates the following assumption: the village was 12 miles beyond the maximum range of the helicopters from the aircraft carrier. OK - this explains the necessity of a parachute insertion and a 12 mile hike to the extraction point. So far so good.
Long story short - they get to the landing zone and get on the helicopter and take off with the doctor as she protests their abandoning the villagers. As they're flying out, they pass over the village and see that the people left behind have been brutally slaughtered, prompting the SEAL leader to have a change of....
WAIT A MINUTE!
They pass over the village on their way home? Which is to say that they marched 12 miles AWAY from the aircraft carrier? Which is to also say that the helicopter could have just flown to the village and evacuated the doctor without a dangerous night time parachute jump into the jungle by battle fatigued SEALs? Wha??
OK - you can make the argument that they thought rebel forces may already have occupied the town (although nothing of that was mentioned in the SEALs' briefing), but once they knew it was clear they certainly could have flown in a helicopter. I contend that this was Hollywood's worst offense in the plotting department all year. Any other candidates?
Think how I feel . . . I BOUGHT this damned DVD!
What!?
I liked this film!
I obviously didn't dissect it like you did.
Its a rescue turned vengeance picture.
I just went with the flow and really enjoyed it!
ASH - I didn't "dissect" this movie, its stomach popped open and spilled its guts out all over my living room floor. Small stuff I can live with (like Tom Skerritt communicating with the SEAL team by going out on the carrier flight deck and screaming into a cell phone as jets land beside him instead of calmly speaking into a radio in the ships ops center). But you have to admit the helicopter flying straight over the village after they hiked 12 miles past guerillas to get picked up simply pushed the limits of acceptable plotting... don't you??
Don't you wonder what the pilot was thinking when he flew over the village he knew he couldn't possibly fly over??
I'm with you, Dano. It was formulaic, contrived, and downright silly at times. I watched it with my parents and started calling off who was going to die, when, and how about halfway in and nailed it every time.
And in response to what I thought the subject of this thread was supposed to mean, I always want to kick the guy who rented the movie I came into the store to get and it's gone. They should all be made to sit down and watch Tears of the Sun.
Brother R
Br R.: Yeah, the character death order wasn't hard to crack. What surprised me was the rapid succession in which they bought it at the end. Actually, quick deaths were probably one of the more realistic aspects of the film (though the SEAL tactics reminded me more of a bunch of girl scouts playing paintball). Still - didn't the end seem kind of rushed? Like Bruce Willis had an unexpected party to attend and they had to finish in one day?