Review: Tears of the Sun

Review: Tears of the Sun

 

The movie centers on the central character of Lieutenant Waters who is sent by his commanders to the aid of a Dr. Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci) among a war inflicted Nigeria. Nigeria is experiences unrest due to a civil war. All occupants of the country are rendered in hazardous situations. Upon contact, Dr. Hendricks refuses to leave the side of her clients who are now in refugee status. Waters is given into a compromising deal wherein Dr. Hendricks to be seen out of the country with the escort of her clients. Waters is then faced with the dilemma of actually leaving all the others instead of taking them also.

The main theme of the movie is the clash between right and wrong. In moral terms, what is right may be seen as sticking to the rules, which was only to take Hendricks and not to meddle with the country’s internal issues. The other side is to base the right thing into taking one;s own instincts and attempting to save all the human beings who are in danger of absolutely perishing ones he leaves them. However, another dilemma complicate the situation when it turns out that helping all the others may result for the team to be in danger as well,  with the possibility of the mission being jeopardized, because of the decisions he makes. It is set on the wilderness of Nigeria which takes its audience into a thriller nature expedition whilst battling internal conflicts of moral bounds.

The movie Tears of the Sun is about the tragic gray areas in a movie. It portrays a situation wherein citizens of a developed country move in the aid of refugees residing inside a developing country under civil war. It places a lieutenant and a doctor into a situation where they chose to help refugees in Nigeria, under civil war, and forced to face consequences for their actions. They may be seen as taking a side in the ongoing battles and this provokes other militant forces into taking actions against the supposed third party participants.

The movie tackles the many issues that may be involved in diplomatic arenas wherein a third party or a simple arbiter party‘s position is compromised through decisions they make to help the injured, innocent or otherwise.

The movie Tears of the Sun seeks to state a deeper message. Although it may commonly be seen as a typical action film, a deeper more emotional moral is being sent out to its audience. One message that comes across its audience is a question. It poses its queries on the diplomatic and political discourses seeking to understand the philosophical and moral dilemmas one needs to answer in times of war. With the recognition of humanity the doctor awards her refugee clients, a dilemma into which side should they be taking, or are they supposed to take sides at all?

The moral question posited by the film is very interesting and it is one that is underrated. Most people, especially in peaceful centers of the world, would not be able to actually see the situations ongoing in war torn areas of our planet. Films such as this, although quite minimally, showcase the happenings and the faces of war that most people would happily spend their lives without any knowledge of. This facet of the film is expressed widely in the beginning. This in turn leads the audience into expectations which the film fails to deliver in the end.

However, the message is seen to be completely lost in the haywire firings and bombings. After all, it still is an action film. After spending most of the movie’s minutes dwelling into the issues, one may see how it succumbs to the call of media pressure of selling and eventually turns into a full blown action film.

As for cinematography and technicalities, the director, Antoine Fuqua (Bait), fresh from Training Day does exemplifies his eye for visual aesthetics; especially with the film, being fortunate enough to have been able to sign in one of the better action film performers Bruce Willis. Willis is one of the few artists of his craft who can effortlessly switch between genres of action and drama, notwithstanding recognition that he may have some reservations on the latter genre. The main protagonist was able to witch between the two genres which illustrate the three-dimensionality of character that is not often seen in action inspired flicks. The actor was able to present a new facet of character which plays with action film enthusiasts without boring other consequential critics.

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