Tears of the Sun

Tears of the Sun

Director – Antoine Fuqua

Starring – Bruce Willis, Monika Bellucci, Cole Hauser,

MPAA - Rated R for strong war violence, some brutality and language.

“Tears of the Sun” manages to take a standard search and rescue jungle movie with a predictable plot and make it into a thought provoking, if not somewhat disturbing, action/thriller. I liked “Tears of the Sun” a lot for this reason. I was not blown away at how amazing this movie was, but I did enjoy how this film used a Nigerian coup and genocide to show the audience a change of character in Bruce Willis’s part. The film uses excellent cinematography to paint a dreadful and haunting, but beautiful, African jungle; and used that background for us to see Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) change from a hardened warrior to a man fighting for a cause.



This movie reminded me a lot of the Oscar winning “Blood Diamond.” Though not as heart breaking or as structured, “Tears of the Sun” is still a well made film that shows the horrors of war, but still manages to develop characters and plot a little bit. Yes this movie does dive into some of the age old Hollywood cookie cutter parts. Yes there is virtually no dialogue (everyone is running through the jungle trying to not get killed, there is no time for talking). But through these flaws we still get a powerful story.



I was really captivated by the stunning shots of the African jungles. The cinematography was stupendous. What the film lacked in plot and dialogue was made up in dramatic music/film sequences with shots of Willis’s face looking mournful. These scenes helped us to see the effect the genocide witnessed by Willis’s character had on him, and how he was changing into a better man.

Waters (played by Willis) leads in a group of Navy Seals to extract American doctor Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) from the middle of a Nigerian Civil war and ethnic cleansing. The doctor refuses to leave without the refugees she is caring for. This creates inner conflict for Water’s and he struggles with his conscience and with his orders as he and his men trek the jungle with the refugees as the Nigerian army closes in.



I liked “Tears of the Sun”. It was not an amazing film but it is definitely worth watching once. The action junkies will like the long battle sequences, and those searching for a deeper meaning will enjoy it as well. This is not a film for the faint hearted, it is violent and brutal; but it shows the horrors in Africa and I feel the makers of the movie might have been making a political statement here. ‘Tears of the Sun” gets a 7.8 out of 10 in my book. Not excellent, but it was worth watching for sure.

Sex/Nudity – 6 out of 10 – 2 rape scenes and we see part of an exposes breast. A woman shows quite a bit of cleavage throughout the film.

Violence/Gore – 9 out of 10 – This is not quite as brutal as “Saving Private Ryan but it is still messy. Most of the gore is in a rape scene where we see a badly beaten woman; we get the impression and we are told later that her breasts have been cut off. It is a violent film, but I would not say it is gratuitous violence, it was not for fun.

Profanity – 20 F words and a few other obscenities.