Tears of the Sun [Blu-ray]

Director: Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua

Overview

A career soldier is forced to choose between following orders and saving lives in this action thriller. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) is a veteran Navy SEAL whose commander (Tom Skerritt) has given his team a special assignment. A Central African nation is expected to explode into war at any moment, and Waters and his cohorts are to escort any American citizens in the area to safety, most notably Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a doctor from the United States who has set up a clinic in the jungle. Waters and his men find Kendricks, but she refuses to leave with them unless she can bring along 70 refugees who have been left to her care. Kendricks makes it clear that if they are left behind, the refugees will face certain death, but Waters's C.O. insists he bring back Kendricks -- but not her patients. Forced by his conscience to disobey orders, Waters and his team race against time to escort the refugees to a border town where they will find safe haven before invading troops can ambush them. Tears of the Sun (which was produced under the title Man of War) also features Cole Hauser and Fionnula Flanagan.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/19/2006
UPC:	0043396160972
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICTURES
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:01:00
Sales rank:	15,128

Special Features

Seamless menu navigation; Director's commentary; Writers' observations; Deleted scenes; Factoid track

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿	Lieutenant A.K. Waters
Monica Bellucci	Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks
Cole Hauser	James 'Red' Atkins
Eamonn Walker	Ellis 'Zee' Pettigrew
Johnny Messner	Kelly Lake
Nicholas Chinlund	Michael 'Slo' Slowenski
Tom Skerritt	Captain Bill Rhodes
Akosua Busia	Patience
Paul Francis	Danny 'Doc' Kelley
Malick Bowens	Colonel Idris Sadick
Awaovieyi Agie	Musa
Ida Onyango	Lasana
Benjamin Ochieng	Colonel Emanuel Okeze
Kanayo Chiemelu	General Mustafa Yakubu
Hadar Busia-Singleton	Amaka
Fabrice Yahve Habimana Jr.	Bujo
Sammi Rotibi	Arthur Azuka
Jimmy Jean-Louis	Gideon
Fionnula Flanagan	Sister Grace
Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy	Sister Siobhan
Pierrino Mascarino	Father Gianni
Peter Mensa	Terwase
Howard Mungo	President Samuel Azuka
Allison Dean	Rape Victim
Rodney Charles	Christopher Marwa
Jewel McDonald	Village Woman
Harry Van Gorkum	Carrier Reporter
Michael Clossin	Rhodes' Aide
Lisa Gerrard	Composer
Hans Zimmer	Composer

Technical Credits

Patrick Cirillo

Alex Lasker

Robert Orr

Malcolm Clarke

Antoine Fuqua	Director
Patrick Cirillo	Screenwriter
Alex Lasker	Screenwriter
Ian Bryce	Producer
Arnold Rifkin	Producer
Mike Lobell	Producer
Joe Roth	Executive Producer
Robert Orr	Screenwriter
Malcolm Clarke	Screenwriter
Chuck Jeffreys	Stunts
Willie Burton	Sound/Sound Designer
George Simpson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Bruce Willis and the ravishing Monica Bellucci star in this suspenseful war movie, a genre offering that studiously avoids the clichés of jingoistic shoot-’em-ups in favor of a more intellectually and emotionally satisfying approach. Tears of the Sun reflects with surprising accuracy the horrors being perpetrated daily in African nations convulsed by civil war fomented by antagonistic ethnic groups. Willis portrays Navy SEAL lieutenant A. K. Waters, who leads a special-operations team into the Nigerian jungle to find Italian-born doctor Lena Hendricks (Bellucci), an American citizen by marriage, before she can be captured (or worse) by marauding rebels heading for her makeshift hospital. Lena refuses to leave unless the American soldiers agree to lead her African patients to safety -- a nearly impossible undertaking that would undermine Waters's clearly defined mission. Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) renders the atrocities of African warfare in excruciating detail, but his depictions are neither gratuitous nor exploitative; they underline the severity of current conditions and amplify the moral dilemma faced by the American commander: Can he stick to his narrowly defined mission and allows scores of wounded refugees to be slaughtered? Willis, who invested many of his former heroes with macho insouciance, brings a welcome maturity and gravitas to his characterization of Waters. Bellucci, of whom the script demands considerably less, makes an attractive and engaging foil -- albeit one whose true motives are shrouded in secrecy. The battle scenes are excellently done and not overtly sensationalistic, and the relentless pursuit of the SEALs and refugees by the brutal rebels adds nail-biting suspense. Very much in the current tradition of war movies that refuse to glorify war, Tears of the Sun provides two hours of provocative and eminently satisfying entertainment.