Review of Tears of the Sun (2003) by Harry W — 27 Dec 2015

Putting Bruce Willis into a war movie under the direction of Antoine Fuqua, Tears of the Sun sounded like an exciting action spectacle.

Without giving viewers all that much context, Tears of the Sun leaps straight into its story. However, this just means that viewers will realize even quicker that there is hardly much of one in the film. Tears of the Sun lays out a generic story in a Nigerian context, dragging audiences through overly familiar war themes which come off as tedious attempts at sentimentality. As much as I am a sucker for a good war film, Tears of the Sun most simply does not fit that criteria.

Tears of the Sun attempts to bring the attention of viewers to the events of the Nigerian civil war, and admittedly I didn't know there was one prior to seeing the film. It's clear from this that Antoine Fuqua has the best intentions with his film, and casting actual African refugees to portray extras supports this notion while boasting the legitimate nature of the film. However, viewers are unlikely to be moved by the film as it is so dramatically distant that after having experienced the entire film I didn't feel like I had watched anything. Most of the "horrors" depicted in Tears of the Sun are simply people suffering in silence captured in slow motion, a trope established by countless war films prior such as in Oliver Stone's Academy Award winning Platoon (1986). Turning the unexplored context of the film into a repetitive drama which has been seen countless times before effectively turns Tears of the Sun into both a misfire and a key example of wasted potential, as well as money.

To make matters worse, the action in Tears of the Sun does not actually begin until past 50 minutes in. By that point, viewers have been dragged through a long quantity of tedious plotting. The action scenes in Tears of the Sun are the best scenes in the film, but they are still not enough to elevate the film beyond its mediocrity. To begin with, there are too few of them spread out over the course of the narrative. And as well as that, there is a feeling that they have all been seen before. The action is staged very conventionally with little innovation in terms of what actual action is occurring or how it is depicted. The film limits its scope to a small group of select characters and captures them all with A-grade production values yet a B-movie cinematography style in which there is predominantly an oscillation between wide angle shots and close ups with few clever techniques. For a film with such a large budget, the actual style of the action scenes feels too simplistic and fails to elevate the tragedy of the story to its intended heights. The colour scheme is also oddly bleak, casting an abundance of grey over the entire visual field with the intention of adding atmosphere but rather just making the visual experience all the more dull. But I will admit that these scenes remain intense and use the production design and scenery to maximum effect, creating a real feeling of warfare. Alas, it just makes it all the more disappointing when there are so few of these scenes in the film. Tears of the Sun managed to skyrocket its budget to beyond $100 million and yet it churned out such a minimal experience in terms of style, even though Antoine Fuqua clearly has a sense of imagery. If Tears of the Sun desired to be a good action movie then it should have implored a greater focus on warfare, and it would have made a lot more sense because the screenplay hints that it has the desire to transcend this yet the quality of the dialogue and actual story proves otherwise. Instead, viewers are simply left to be repeatedly hit over the head by the same messages about how war is a terrible thing again and again at a slow pace for a running time which stretches its limited material way too far.

Tears of the Sun is a film which offers a generic contract of Bruce Willis' status as an action hero and Antoine Fuqua's recognition for creating strong action scenes in the context of a war movie where the promotional material boasts Bruce Willis grasping a weapon. However, in spirit of the same faults the director would adhere to when he put together The Equalizer (2014) many years later, Tears of the Sun offers a sporadic collection of stylish violence which is too sporadic to fulfil its implied promises.

However, Bruce Willis remains as solid as ever. Though the man has a great status as an action hero, Tears of the Sun proves to be a chance for him to branch out. The limitations of the material stand in the way of him achieving anything groundbreaking, but his natural talent as an actor is surely an asset for the film. For one thing, his abilities in using weaponry make him an easily engaging soldier during the action scenes of the film. Yet since there are so few of those, he is forced to spend more time engaging with dramatic material. Through every shot where Tears of the Sun clutches to the roots of its sentimental cliches, Bruce Willis works hard to keep up with it all and remains intense the entire time. He has the true nature of a soldier in him, balancing emotional distance from vulnerability alongside determination to protect and serve. Bruce Willis essentially brings his instinctive nature to Tears of the Sun which means he caters to what fans could expect, despite the lack of action scenes. His chemistry with Monica Bellucci is also effectively intense, meaning he is able to engage with her well enough to bring out her own natural strength. Monica Bellucci also works to ensure Tears of the Sun is a well-acted piece.

So Tears of the Sun has Bruce Willis' natural charm and Antoine Fuqua's eye for strong action scenes, but both elements are underutilized in favour of a long and slow narrative built upon an abundance of familiar war movie cliches and sentimentalities.