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Tears of the Sun, Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci (2003)

Tears of the Sun, Monica Belucci
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Synopsis of the DVD Movie: Tears of the Sun

Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters 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. 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 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.

DVD Movie Rating for: Tears of the Sun

DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Tears of the Sun

He was trained to follow orders. He became a hero by defying them.

DVD Production Details of: Tears of the Sun

Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Columbia Tristar Home

DVD Release Date: December 2, 2003
DVD Features:
Commentary by director Antoine Fuqua

Theatrical trailer(s)

Writer's observations

Journey to Safety: Making Tears of the Sun

Voices of Africa

Deleted scenes

Africa fact track

Interactive map of Africa

Widescreen anamorphic format

Director Antoine Fuqua on the making of Tears of the Sun

Tears of the Sun, Antoine Fuqua teamed with Bruce Willis for another intense drama, but this time one about a man with a conscience. Willis stars as Lt. A.K. Waters, the loyal veteran officer of a Navy S.E.A.L. unit sent to war-torn Nigeria on a resuce mission.

"I wanted to shoot on location in Africa, in Namibia and West Africa, but as we started prepping the day after 9/11, we decided that'd be far too risky, so we moved the shoot to Oahu, Hawaii," reported Antoine Fuqua. "That gave us all the locations and rainforest and jungle we needed, but it was still a nightmare shoot."

Antoine Fuqua isn't exaggerating. Every single piece of film equipment had to be specially airlifted in by helicopters or hand-carried into the jungle. "All the camera packages and lighting and grip equipment were brought in from the mainland first, and then stuff like the cables had to be carted in by hand for several miles as the grip trucks couldn't get up the hills because of all the mud and rain," he noted.

"It was a nightmare shoot," says Antoine Fuqua, Bruce Willis stars with French actress Monica Bellucci .

The team spent some six months on pre-production, "but it wasn't really long enough for a project of this size and difficulty," Antoine Fuqua said. "The logistics of moving all the cast and crew and equipment in the jungle were just mind-boggling, and thank God we had a producer like Ian Bryce, who did Saving Private Ryan with Spielberg and Spider-Man. His experience was crucial to pulling this off."

Antoine Fuqua once again teamed with his Training Day director of photography, Mauro Fiore. To ensure that they got the coverage they needed, the director storyboarded "every single shot and very carefully blocked them out ahead of time," he added. "On a shoot like this you have to prepare every shot, especially as you're also dealing with a lot of explosions and fire power, all of which have to be timed and choreographed."

For scenes featuring RPGs being fired at the SEALs, "our effects team used wires to guide the missiles precisely to the point of impact," he said. "Then ILM did all the wire removal work in post." Fuqua also shot plates for some of the scenes involving F-18 fighter jets, "which ILM then added in later using CGI."

Fiore and Fuqua used the same Kodak stock as on Training Day. "But we timed it differently and experimented quite a lot with different stops to get the look we wanted," noted the director. "We had a lot of night shoots, and the color palette and mood of the film starts off very dark, and then it gradually lightens up, which in turns echoes the emotional arc of a story about heroism and sacrifice."

Weather was "another major factor" in the shoot, said Fuqua. "It changed constantly, but we kept shooting even if it rained."

The result is a film that Fuqua understandably labels "the hardest thing I've ever done." The director, who made his feature film debut with The Replacement Killers, says that his previous work in both music video and commercials "was a great education" for dealing with this kind of project. In 1996 Antoine Fuqua won MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rap Video and Best Video From a Film for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," and his long list of credits includes cutting-edge videos for such varied artists as Prince, Toni Braxton, Heavy D & The Boyz, Arrested Development and Stevie Wonder. His body of commercial work includes spots for such major accounts as Seiko, Honda, Miller Genuine Draft, Reebok and Toyota.

"My background in videos and commercials was invaluable," he noted. "First, it teaches you to work very fast, and to be adaptable. And then it's really developed my eye for an interesting shot, and I'll get that shot whatever it takes."

Cast of the movie: Tears of the Sun

Photo Gallery of the movie: Tears of the Sun

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs
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Reviews of the movie: Tears of the Sun

It's not hard to see why John Woo was attached to this project for a while - it has a lot of similarities to his earlier (and underrated) movie HEROES SHED NO TEARS. (The intense climax, in fact, feels extremely John Woo-ish.) I can only wonder what it would have been like had he been in control... though considering the general quality of his American movies, maybe that might not have been a good thing. Anyway, the movie as it is ends up being not bad. It's paced pretty well, and even though there's not that many action scenes (though they are all well-staged), it's never boring, and that fact will be enough for most people. The biggest weakness is that the characters are not very strong - Willis' character hardly says that much and you don't get a feel for his character, Bellucci's statements and actions eventually resemble that of a broken record, and the rebel commander pursuing the protagonists is given no personality at all.

While it offers nothing new to the military action genre, "Tears of the Sun" distinguishes itself with fine acting, expert craftsmanship, and seriousness of purpose. Its familiar "extraction mission" plot is essentially similar to that of "Black Hawk Down", involving a crack team of U.S. Special Ops commandos struggling to rescue innocent missionaries amidst the bloody horror of Nigerian ethnic cleansing. With Bruce Willis as their grizzled, no-nonsense commander, the skillful team enters a hot zone that gets even hotter when their "package"--an American national (Monica Bellucci) who runs the isolated mission--demands that 70 Nigerian villagers be included in the rescue. Bruce Willis's uneasy conscience leads him to defy orders and expand his mission, and in an ambitious follow up to "Training Day", director Antoine Fuqua escalates tension and strike-force with considerable emotional impact. Originally considered as a potential entry in Bruce Willis's Die Hard series, and released on the eve of America's war with Iraq, Tears of the Sun admirably avoids jingoism with its rousing story of personal good vs. political evil

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Last Modified: 10-Jul-2011 12:24