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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Rebel forces in Nigeria are slowly taking over. There are still Americans in the country, and the heightened conflict could prove deadly to them. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and a group of Navy S.E.A.L.s are called in to rescue Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci), a doctor in charge of a mission, along with the priest and two nuns that work with her. They find her with no problem, but Lena isn't convinced that she is more important than all the ill and injured patients that she has cared for. In fact, she will not go unless Waters agrees to take them with her. His captain (an obligatory Tom Skerritt) isn't convinced by her argument and considers the refugees too much of a burden for the mission to succeed. Waters caters to Lena 's request but only agrees to take along those who can move on their own. The priest and the two nuns, on the other hand, stay behind with the patients that remain. Waters gets to the rendezvous point with the doctor and the refugees and leaves the latter behind. While flying over the mission and seeing the results of the rebel militia's work, Waters has a change of conscience and decides to return to bring the refugees over the border as well. The problem is that the presidential family has been murdered, and the situation has escalated too high to bring in any more helicopters. So Waters and his team must trek to the border on their own resources. The movie wisely gets right into the mission and doesn't attempt to tease us with any extraneous attempt at character development. Despite what one might think, that's a virtue in this case, since any such attempt will ultimately lead nowhere. What little character setup there is comes out through the decisions the central characters make. The screenplay by Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo starts off fairly intelligent. In fact, all the through the exposition, the inciting action, and the majority of the plot development, Lasker and Cirillo paint a rather complicated moral and political portrait of the backdrop for an action movie. There's one plot turn, though, that involves the possible future of democracy in Nigeria that starts the movie in a different direction. From then on through the climax and denouement, the movie sets itself up for and carries out a far too optimistic and clean-cut ending. At this point, whatever political or moral questioning we may be experiencing is tossed aside, because the script sets itself up for an easy, cut and dried way out. There's no question that what Waters and his team have done is justified. In reality, such scenarios aren't so simple. The future leadership isn't as clear. The movie also forgets or ignores what will happen afterwards. This kind of coup d'état is sure to happen again, and once it does, it most definitely won't be as easily diffused. The film's message is summarized in the end by a quote from Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." It's a nice sentiment, but most of the time, things are too complicated for that kind of reasoning. The movie explores that reality occasionally, like in an episode involving a traitor to the group who has turned so to protect his family. It's a bad thing that he has done, but he isn't an evil person.Read full review
Loyal veteran Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. A.K. Waters is sent into the heart of war-torn Africa on a hazardous mission to rescue Dr. Lena Hendricks, a U.S. citizen who runs a mission. When the beautiful doctor refuses to abandon the refugees in her care, Lt. Waters finds himself having to choose between following orders and the dictates of his own conscience. Together, they begin a dangerous trek through the deadly jungle, all the while being pursued by a rebel militia group, with only one goal in mind: to assassinate Lt. Waters' unit and the refugees in his care...
I bought the tape because I wanted to see what it had to say. I've spent 6 months in Nigeria about 10 years ago and I wanted to compare notes, so to speak- check my view of the country against someone else's. I guess is true that once you get the red African clay on your soles you can never shake it off... I thought the phrase "God has left Africa" was very appropriate. The film indeed depicts the state of many African countries, the plight of Africa's women and children... It is sad that such practices still exist even today and are most likely to exist for the foreseeable future. The film depicts the worst, but also the best of human nature. It depicts the face of Africa that most people would like and succeed not to think about too much, otherwise they could not sleep- I'm one of those people, so I know.... All in all, a good film- some inaccuracies- no carvings on the faces, like the majority of Nigerians have, but in the name of artistic license the inaccuracies can be forgiven.Read full review
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