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It used to be easy to make an effective movie about the military. It
seems there was a time when everybody was patriotic and it was always clear
who the enemy was. This meant that anyone who defended you against that
enemy was clearly a hero. There was simply no ambiguity on that point.
Nowadays we have seen that very war has two sides and there have been
plenty of movies that shake our faith in the army. We have also been
exposed to all the army clichés in the book. To make a powerful movie about
the army now, you have to do something different (like Saving Private Ryan
or Three Kings), focus on suspense (like U-571), or go to the other extreme
and not try to be taken seriously. If an army movie stays stuck in the
middle, it ends up going nowhere (like The General's Daughter). Rules of
Engagement is one of those movies about the American army that brings up
all the tired clichés and gets lost in military showboating.
The movie opens with reasonable good jungle war scene from the Vietnam
war with Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) creeping
through the undergrowth which ends up with Childers saving Hodges' life.
Cut to the present day where the two soldiers are aging colonels, Childers
still in active duty, and Hodges a mediocre military lawyer (injuries
sustained in the Vietnam jungle preventing him from seeing any further
action). Childers is called up to lead a group of marines to evacuate an
American embassy in Yemen after a crowd of protesters start to get violent.
During the confrontation, he orders his men to fire upon the crowd killing
83 people. This causes an international scandal with Childers being blamed
and put before a court martial, accused of murder.
Rather than get a good lawyer, Childers asks Hodges to act as his
defense counsel. From here on, things get a bit predictable, with Hodges
doing the lawyer-acting-as-detective routine that only happens in movies,
going to Yemen to look for evidence that other people have not been able to
find. There we are shown scenes of children with legs blown off but we are
not really made to feel sorry for them because we are supposed to be
feeling sorry for Childers because he has served his country so bravely
over the last 30 years.
There is little tension in the ensuing courtroom scenes because we have
already been shown the crucial pieces of evidence that will decide the
case. Maybe we could look for interesting supporting characters.
Unfortunately there are none. Bruce Greenwood is suitably slimy as the
National Security Advisor, Guy Pearce is stern but has a funny accent as
the counsel for the prosecution, and Ben Kingsley is bizarre as the feeble
ambassador. The only characters of any interest are Childers and Hodges and
luckily for the audience, Jackson and Jones have enough charisma to keep
the movie watchable through mostly ridiculous scenes (like the old buddies
have a punch up then start laughing scene).
What really drags this movie down is the constant grandstanding of how
great the army is, especially the Marines. We have seen this so many times
before that it is becoming boring. Even the Vietnamese think the American
army is great (as demonstrated in a particularly dubious scene at the end
of the film).
Overall, a dull movie with some interesting scenes and two cool actors.
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