Drama

Rules of Engagement

Paramount Pictures

Seven Arts Pictures

Munich Film Partners & Company (MFP) ROE Production

United States of America

Germany

العربية

English

Tommy Lee Jones

Samuel L. Jackson

Guy Pearce

Ben Kingsley

Bruce Greenwood

Anne Archer

Blair Underwood

Philip Baker Hall

Dale Dye

Amidou

Mark Feuerstein

Nicky Katt

Ryan Hurst

John Speredakos

Baoan Coleman

Richard McGonagle

G. Gordon Liddy

Todd Kimsey

William Friedkin

Scott Rudin

Richard D. Zanuck

Mark Isham

Stephen Gaghan

Nicola Pecorini

Augie Hess

Arne Schmidt

Adam Schroeder

Jim Webb

William A. Fraker

Denise Chamian

P.R. Tooke

Robert W. Laing

Gloria Gresham

Greg P. Russell

Kevin O'Connell

Steve Boeddeker

Mike Szakmeister

Ronald Eng

Chris Scarabosio

Sam Emerson

Mark Van Loon

Pete Cavaciuti

William Cruse

Alan Day

Andy Nicholson

Christopher Woodworth

William S. Maxwell III

Robert Heine

Mitchell Ray Kenney

Cydney Cornell

Gail Rowell-Ryan

Allan A. Apone

Brian Penikas

Kelly Porter

Carl Catanese

David Fencl

Tony Capasso

Peter Hansen

Tim Monich

Edward Cook

Stacy De La Motte

Kieran Woo

Thomas Cooper

Richard Wood

Buddy Joe Hooker

Jeff 'JJ' Dashnaw

Jason Shea

Austin Thompson

Dusty Saunders

Roberto Malerba

Wayne Tidwell

Debra Wolff

Terry Haggar

Alessio Bramucci

Bryan Booth

Patrick Bramucci

Stephen Thorp

Martin Bosworth

Daniel Dietrich

David Israel

Norma Smith

Nanette Siegert

Carlos H. Sánchez

Michael A. Patillo

Beau Borders

Tom Carlson

Hanson Hsu

Paul J. Lombardi

Joel Román Mendías

Denise Ballantyne

Erik Nash

Thom 'Coach' Ehle

Cullen G. Chambers

Dick Ziker

Barry Bedig

Newt Arnold

Carin Rogers

Scott Curtis

Tammy Fearing

Randy K. Singer

Russell Williams II

Sarah Monat

Robin Harlan

Robert Ulrich

Kerry Dean Williams

Dean Drabin

Lance Gilbert

Darrin Navarro

Fred C. Vitale

Cliff Fleming

Craig Hosking

John T. Scanlon

Rick Shuster

Lahcen Abbana

Filipe Manuel Neto

**It had everything to be much better and complex, but it was deliberately simplified to become a courtroom drama with touches of puffed up patriotism.**

I was never in the military, I didn't need to be (I'll be the first to volunteer if my country needs it), but I am the son of an ex-military man, a war veteran with years of combat in Africa. And I know that, when you are in a combat scenario, the rules don't matter, what matters is getting out of there alive, and the concern of an officer with soldiers in his charge is to accomplish the mission with the minimum of casualties, to do the job and come back with all the boys. My father taught me this and told me several stories that prove it, and I'm talking about this now because the film, due to its theme, makes me remember and think about it.

The script begins with a combat in the middle of Vietnam, where an officer, Terry Childers, executes a captured Viet Cong to force the commander of the hostile force, also taken prisoner, to order his men to retreat. That is, he clearly violates a combat rule in order to save the lives of soldiers under his command. Years later, he is sent to Yemen to protect the US embassy, which is surrounded by a hostile mob and under sniper fire. In the evacuation of the embassy, Childers loses three soldiers and sees a fourth comrade fall, mortally wounded, ordering the others to return fire and fire on a crowd killing 83 people. In the following months, however, he is taken to the Military Court and accused of murder and inappropriate conduct of an officer, calling to defend him an old friend from Vietnam, Hays Hodges, who owes him his life for what he did there.

We've had our fair share of movies with military courts and trials, that's not new, and director William Friedkin made the mistake of turning the movie into a simple courtroom drama. The plot is effective in the task of making us doubt Childers' guilt, and leaves the public free to support him or not, but it does so effortlessly, going in simple ways: for example, demonizing politicians and highlighting a cabal. to withhold evidence and force the court to convict him. It is quite obvious that there are powerful people interested in condemning him and using him as a sacrificial lamb to remedy a political and diplomatic imbroglio. Unfortunately, the film does not explore this, it pushes more complex issues out of the way, it never addresses the position of the State Department or even that of the President and everything is simplified, resulting in a film that, despite being entertaining, is quite forgettable.

The cast has a range of excellent actors and very solid credits for the characters they will play. Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson have already done other similar jobs and are very safe bets for the two central characters in the plot. However, none of them will one day be remembered for this film. Guy Pearce also does a satisfactory job and within what could be expected from the actor. Ben Kingsley makes a relatively brief appearance and doesn't add much to the film, but the one who really does poorly is Bruce Greenwood. He plays the role of a cabinet politician... yet the character is downright underwritten and is only here to be hated by all of us.

Technically, the film is up to the standards of what I call "American patriotic films". It has good cinematography and good effects, a very martial soundtrack, excellent action scenes with good combat moments and, of course, the ubiquitous flag of the USA, revered and protected by the blood of heroic soldiers. Here, without a doubt, we feel the aroma of advertising. The USA is a country that likes to meddle in the affairs of other countries and assumes the role of the planet's police, but it is enough that the polls of the electorate are more adverse than the generals immediately order the withdrawal of troops. We saw the result of all this patriotism in Kabul very recently, but those of us who are older will remember Saigon.

CinemaSerf

After a squad of US Marines are despatched to rescue their embattled ambassador to the Yemen (Sir Ben Kingsley), the mission turns quite deadly and the National Security Advisor (Bruce Greenwood) concludes that it’s in everyone’s best interests to take the commander - Col. Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) and hang him out to dry. Luckily for them, he has a bit of a reputation as a maverick and so the court-martial could just be a box-ticking exercise for the prosecuting Maj. Biggs (Guy Pearce). Short of allies amongst the powers that be, Childers recruits veteran Col. Hodge (Tommy Lee Jones) to put together his defence. Basically, he is being accused of ordering the indiscriminate killing of seventy-odd civilians who were besieging the embassy whilst his men were under lethal sniper fire. Unhelpfully, the video recordings from the security cameras appear to have gone missing and the diplomat he evacuated has considered his career prospects a little more pressing than worrying about what happens to this soldier. The drama delivers nothing at all new, here, but the message is a little more poignant as those judging from the safety of a courtroom have to second guess those actions under fire of a man whose face no longer fits politically. The dialogue is all pretty ropey, though, and the whole thing has a disappointing inevitability about it that fails to capitalise on quite a perilous start. Jones doesn’t really have enough to get his teeth into, Pearce seriously over-eggs his accent and the courtroom drama element is all just a bit flat, including, the rousing closing speech that makes then labours it’s point. It’s all watchable enough, but I’m not sure I will ever remember it.

Rules Of Engagement Trailer

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Rules of Engagement

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Cast

Tommy Lee Jones

Samuel L. Jackson

Guy Pearce

Ben Kingsley

Bruce Greenwood

Anne Archer

Blair Underwood

Philip Baker Hall

Dale Dye

Amidou

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