BEFORE: Well, this film seems quite timely because of the recent attacks on Yemen - you maybe read something in the newspapers about how officials from the Trump administration accidentally included a reporter in their group chat about the war plans - which, not really even knowing much about it, can't even possibly be the stupidest thing that the current administration has done. Because the tariffs are stupider, since there's a recession or even a depression that's imminent, so you'd best take all your money out of the bank, hide it under the bed and start stocking up on canned goods. Jesus, I can't take another run on toilet paper - but it's going to make the pandemic look like a walk in the park. Well, I just quit my primary job, so I'm going to try and get used to not going to work, let's all find out what happens when we reach 80% or 90% unemployment, OK? Should be fun.
Where were we - oh, right, Yemen. Take a minute and figure out where Yemen is on the map, if you don't already know, and read about the recent news that the tariffs were designed to distract you from, then we can continue with today's film. I don't know why the scandal seems to be about "Trump cabinet members group chatted about bombing Yemen" when the scandal really should be "We bombed Yemen?"
Samuel L. Jackson carries over again from "Coach Carter". Yeah, that's a guy who's made a lot of movies. I'm down for seven in a row, but also "Basic" was watched earlier and then there will be another one a few days later, for a total of nine.
THE PLOT: An attorney defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a Middle Eastern country.
AFTER: There's an introductory sequence set during the Vietnam War, as an American Marine platoon encounters Viet Cong soldiers, and most of the soldiers die, Lieutenant Hodges and a few others are cut off from the main group, while Lieutenant Childers starts executing enemy officers in order to get them to call off the attack. It's a crazy plan, but it just might work - and we kind of learn what we need to know about Childers, he'll bend the rules of war to get the result that he wants, and save the lives of American soldiers. Lt. Hodges survives and then we jump forward 28 years to 1996, when Hodges is having his retirement party and Childers turns up to honor him.
Childers is now the commanding officer of his own unit, which is deployed to Yemen to evacuate the U.S. ambassador when a routine anti-American demonstration turns ugly, and the crowd starts throwing rocks and shooting guns at the embassy. Under heavy fire, Childers gets the ambassador and his family to safety, but three Marines are killed by snipers, and while retrieving the U.S. flag, Childers orders his men to open fire on the crowd, and 83 Yemeni soldiers and civilians are killed. Since the incident affects diplomatic relations in the Middle East, the U.S. National Security Advisor calls for a court-martial of Childers, and the rest of the film focuses on his trial. Childers asks his old friend and platoon-mate Hodges to serve as his defense attorney, while Hodges rejects a plea deal that would spare Childers from the death penalty, because he believes that his friend is innocent.
Hodges travels to Yemen and interviews the locals, who all claim that the Marines fired on an unarmed crowd. But Hodges also notices there were security cameras, however he can't find any video-taped evidence to support Childers' claim that there were soldiers firing guns in the crowd on the ground, in addition to the snipers on the nearby rooftops. We the audience get to see that there is a video-tape in the possession of the NSA, however the tape is not turned over to the prosecuting attorney, Major Biggs. Biggs is convinced that Childers is guilty of firing on unarmed civilians without warning, so that could mean that he's unaware of the VHS tape.
When the trial begins, the U.S. Ambassador paints a different picture of Childers behavior than the one we saw during the rescue scene, he claims that Childers barged in and was forceful during the evacuation, indicating his state of mind was that of anger and vengeance. A Yemeni doctor testifies that the audio tapes Hodges found containing threats of violence were merely propaganda, and that the protest that day was a peaceful one. And Captain Lee, who relayed Childers' order to fire on the crowd admits on the stand that he did not have a good view of the crowd, and that only Childers did.
Somehow Hodges finds a manifest that proves that security camera tapes were delivered to the NSA office, however the head of the NSA then says that the tapes were misplaced or disappeared, but hey, that's a step forward, at least he acknowledged they exist and were delivered. Biggs brings evidence that shows that Childers' order to fire was phrased as "waste the mother____ers", and really, that's not a good look. This trial looks like it's going to be too close to call - the prosecution even finds one of the officers that Childers threatened to execute way back in Vietnam, who of course was an eyewitness to Childers breaking the rules of engagement back then, namely executing prisoners. Will Childers be found guilty of murder, or just a lesser charge like conduct unbecoming an officer? No spoilers here, you'll have to watch it to find out.
This film was released in 2000, back then I suppose a lot of filmmakers were trying to duplicate the success of "A Few Good Men", but honestly, there's only so much you can do to make a bunch of trial scenes interesting. Having Samuel L. Jackson's character lose it while testifying is one solution, but Guy Pearce distracting me with a terrible Boston-ish accent is not a good idea.
Directed by William Friedkin (director of "The Hunted" and "The Exorcist")
Also starring Tommy Lee Jones (last seen in "Mechanic: Resurrection"), Guy Pearce (last seen in "Memory"), Ben Kingsley (last seen in "Species"), Bruce Greenwood (last seen in "Doctor Sleep"), Anne Archer (last seen in "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"), Blair Underwood (last seen in "The Art of Getting By"), Philip Baker Hall (last seen in "Coma"), Dale Dye (last seen in "The Purge: Anarchy"), Amidou (last seen in "Spy Game"), Mark Feuerstein (last seen in "Life Partners"), Richard McGonagle (last heard in "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron"), Baoan Coleman, Nicky Katt (last seen in "One True Thing"), Ryan Hurst (last seen in "A Million Little Pieces"), Gordon Clapp (last seen in "The Rage: Carrie 2"), Hayden Tank (last seen in "Space Cowboys"), Jimmy Abounouom, William Gibson, Tuan Tran, John Speredakos (last seen in "School Ties"), Scott Alan Smith (last seen in "Vice" (2018)), David Lewis Hays, Peter Tran, Bonnie Johnson, Jason C. West, Mohamed Attifi (last seen in "A Hologram for the King"), Zouheir Mohamed, Chris Ufland (last seen in "The Aviator"), Thom Barry (last seen in "Fire with Fire"), Kevin Cooney (last seen in "Clockwatchers"), Helen Manning, David Graf (last seen in "The Brady Bunch Movie"), Conrad Bachmann, with the voice of G. Gordon Liddy (last seen in "The U.S. vs. John Lennon").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Good Conduct medals
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