Review of Tears of the Sun (2003) by Dan Y — 09 Oct 2008

After viewing the director's extended cut, I must ask - why was that material removed from the film? I can't believe it was out of time constraints, it's not like this was already 3 hours without the additional stuff a la Lord of the Rings. The theatrical version is about two hour, the extended is around 25 minutes longer. Hm.

It's not for the faint of heart, this shows you the brutal reality of how fundamentalist Muslims treat fellow countrymen who deviate from their faith. Brutal killings and butchery, massacring villages, executing children in front of their parents, it's all here and they these death squads do it without conscience just as the terrorists who hit us on 9/11. No sugar coating, no holding back. It was refreshing to see.

Bruce Willis is a Navy lieutanant commanding a small special forces team sent into extract an American national from Negeria, a nation that is descending into chaos due to ethnic cleansing and a violent coup. The American (the stunning Monica Bellucci) is a doctor working at a Catholic mission in the jungle. She refuses to leave with Willis and his team unless they take at least some of the natives with them who were being cared for and worked at the mission. He agrees despite having no intention of airlifting all of them out, however his feelings change, he and his team take on the task of protecting them in an attempt to reach the neighboring nation of Cameroon. The rebel forces who have overthrown the elected government are in hot pursuit for some reason but that later becomes evident in a surprising, tense moment. Watch this for a realistic look of what happens in African nations far too often.