Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Bruce WillisLieutenant A.K. Waters
- Monica BellucciDr. Lena Fiore Kendricks
- Cole HauserJames 'Red' Atkins
- Eamonn WalkerEllis 'Zee' Pettigrew
- Johnny MessnerKelly Lake
- Nick ChinlundMichael 'Slo' Slowenski
- Tom SkerrittCaptain Bill Rhodes
- Akosua BusiaPatience
- Chad SmithJason 'Flea' Mabry
- Charles IngramDemetrius 'Silk' Owens
Recommendations
- 80
Dallas Observer
The movie remains engaging, with a couple of sequences verging on stunning. - 80
Chicago Reader
By turns morally compelling and racially paternalistic, this provocative drama may be the first halfway truthful war movie to hit multiplexes since "Three Kings." - 75
ReelViews
Fuqua takes a genre picture and, by diverting the story onto an unconventional path, generates a sense of urgency. Tears of the Sun is not a great movie, but it is satisfying, and represents an example of accomplished filmmaking. - 75
Baltimore Sun
Whenever its noble aims miss, Bruce Willis saves it. - 70
The New Yorker
Tears of the Sun may be a flattering myth, but it’s not a bad myth to be flattered by. [17 March 2003, p. 154] - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
What pushes it above mediocrity is that it ends better than it begins. - 50
L.A. Weekly
Despite the busy camera work, bombastic score and rapt attention to violence, director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) can't mask the script's white-savior paternalism. - 50
New York Magazine (Vulture)
In a movie with so much graphic suffering by innocent Africans, it’s a bit disconcerting that so much loving attention is paid to Bruce Willis’s anguished mug. There’s an uncomfortable Great White Father (and Mother) aspect to this movie.
