Jump to content

Rules of Engagement (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 86.130.222.13 (talk) at 00:45, 29 October 2009 (→Synopsis). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Rules of Engagement
The movie poster for Rules of Engagement
Directed byWilliam Friedkin
Written byJames H. Webb
Stephen Gaghan
Produced byScott Rudin
Richard D. Zanuck
StarringTommy Lee Jones
Samuel L. Jackson
Guy Pearce
Bruce Greenwood
Blair Underwood
Philip Baker Hall
with Anne Archer
and Ben Kingsley
CinematographyNicola Pecorini
Edited byAugie Hess
Music byMark Isham
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
March 31, 2000
Running time
128 min.
LanguagesEnglish, Arabic
Budget$60,000,000
Box office$71,732,303

Rules of Engagement is a 2000 American film directed by William Friedkin, and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie, a military, political, and legal drama, is about Marine Colonel Terry Childers, played by Jackson, who is brought to court-martial on charges of disobeying the rules of engagement in a military incident at an American embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, resulting in the slaughter of many civilians by Childers' men.

The lead writer, James H. Webb, is a former Marine combat officer and lawyer and Secretary of the Navy, and is currently the senior United States Senator from Virginia.

Synopsis

The film opens in the Vietnam war in 1968. An US Marine platoon, led by Lieutenant Hays Hodges and Lieutenant Terry Childers are advancing through the jungle and they split up to take two different routes. However, Hodges' group is ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers and all but Hodges are killed. At the same time, Childers' group captures the leader of the attackers, Colonel Binh Le Cao. Childers orders Colonel Cao to call his men off Hodges and advance. To try and intimidate him, Childers holds a pistol to Cao's unarmed radioman, promising to let them both go free if they cooperate. When Cao refuses to call his men off, Childers executes the radioman and turns the gun on Cao, who immediately radios his men and tells them to advance, leaving Hodges alive. Childers then keeps his word and lets Colonel Cao go.

The movie then jumps to 28 years later (1996), where Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones), now a Colonel and a veteran, is holding a retirement party. As a surprise, the now-Colonel Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up to present Colonel Hodges with a sword of honour. Not long after this, Childers and his platoon are called into action in Yemen, where an unruly crowd of local men, women and children demonstrate outside the U.S. embassy in Sana'a which had been incited by jihad audio tapes and the U.S. Ambassador, Ambassador Mourain, his wife and young son need to be evacuated. During the evacuation, 3 Marines are killed by gunmen on the roofs of the buildings overlooking the embassy. After retrieving the U.S. flag and flying Mourain and his family out of the Embassy, Childers returns to aid his marines. A fourth Marine, Sergeant Kresovitch is mortally wounded and dies in Childers' arms. Childers, while peering around his cover, appears to see something in the crowd below. He immediately orders his men to open fire on the crowd, killing 83 men, women and children.

In the wake of this, the U.S. National Security are worried by the dire consequences that are caused by Childers' actions and decide that he needs to be court martialed. The legal case that follows depends on whether (a) the crowd was armed and fired first or (b) Colonel Childers exceeded his orders and reacted based on anger or a darker motive (such as prejudice). According to U.S. military law as explained in the film, Childers could be charged with three offences: murder for killing 83 "non-combatants" (a crime eligible for Life Imprisonment or even the death penalty), as well as Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman (eligible for a Dishonorable Discharge) and a minor charge of Breach of the Peace. But if some of them were carrying weapons and opened fire, he could be exonerated. Childers asks Colonel Hays Hodges to become his attorney. Hodges tells him he needs a better lawyer than him in order to avoid a life sentence, because Hodges had an unimpressive career in the Marines' JAG Corps, but Childers is adamant about having Hodges as his attorney for the principal reason he has served in combat before. Hodges agrees and goes to Yemen, where he finds several audio tapes, which call for a jihad against the USA. This explains the mob outside the embassy and the shooting.

The prosecution asserts that Childers' order to fire was based on personal fear, racism, or confusion. The National Security Advisor, William "Bill" Sokal wants Childers to be convicted in order to preserve U.S. relations with Arab countries; when he receives a CCTV security videotape that shows hostile fire coming from the crowd outside the embassy (which is later revealed in a flashback to have been what Childers had seen while peering around his cover moments before he ordered his marines to open fire), he burns the tape with the hope that the prosecution will win. The defense and Childers respond that he was in fear for his Marines' lives under fire and was in compliance with his orders and the rules of engagement. Childers testifies that he was on the roof and could clearly see that the crowd had weapons, another soldier- who also had an observational position, was killed on site and therefore, Childers is the only one who can testify as to the intentions of the crowd. Ambassador Mourain lies on the stand (blackmailed into co-operating by Sokal earlier on) and says the crowd was peacefully demonstrating and that Childers had acted violently towards him during the evacuation; his wife later admits the truth to Hodges but won't testify in contradiction to her husband. The prosecution introduces previous actions by then-Lieutenant Childers in Vietnam to show a history of misconduct, including a witness - Colonel Binh Le Cao, the very man Childers had captured and released in Vietnam.

During the testimony of Colonel Cao, he recounts how Childers had threatened him with death in order to save his Marines and executed his unarmed radioman. Nevertheless, the foreign officer admits that placed in the same situation, he would have done the same thing. Also, with the correct pieces of evidence, Hodges manages to convince the jury that a camera film from an undamaged camera that had the exact same point of view as Childers, which could have exonerated Childers, had indeed been delivered to Sokal's office, but has not shown up. This appears to be a potential turning point in the trial and, ultimately, Colonel Childers is found guilty of the minor charge of Breach of the Peace but not guilty of the more serious charges of Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and murder. In an effort to save face, the attorney of the prosecution tries to get Hodges to recount what he remembered about the incident in Vietnam to pursue this against Childers. However, Hodges responds by reminding the man of his lack of experience in combat and that the average life expectancy of a marine dropped into a hot LZ was "16 minutes." As Childers steps outside the courthouse, Colonel Cao, before getting in to a car, salutes him, and Childers salutes back. A postscript title card says that William Sokal was charged and found guilty of Spoliation of evidence, forcing him to resign from his post, and that Ambassador Mourain was found guilty of perjury and sacked. No further charges were pursued against Colonel Childers and he retired honourably from the Marines.

Cast

Criticism

The film drew widespread criticism for its portrayal of Arab characters. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee described it as "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood".[1] Paul Clinton of the Boston Globe wrote "at its worst, it's blatantly racist, using Arabs as cartoon-cutout bad guys".

References

  1. ^ Whitaker, Brian. The 'towel-heads' take on Hollywood, The Guardian. Friday August 11, 2000.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rules_of_Engagement_(film)&oldid=322646839"