Rules of engagement

Year of release : 2000

Run time : 2h8m

Genre : War / Action / Legal Drama

Cast : Samuel L. Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Bruce Greenwood, Blair Underwood

The movie opens with a war scene from Vietnam, in which lieutenant Terry Childers saves the life of lieutenant Hayes Hodges, after all his platoon is k1lled.

28 years later Hodges retires, and Childers gives a speech.

Childers and his unit are sent to Yemen, to evacuate the US ambassador when an anti-American demonstration turns into a full blown riot, with rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown against the embassy, and even shots fired at the ones inside.

Getting the ambassador and his family safely to the helicopter, Childers also retrieves the American flag, while a frantic ambassador asks him to depart.

After they leave, the unit loses 3 Marines to the snipers shooting at them, and after Childers looks down at the rioting crowd, he orders his remaining men to open fire on the protesters.

The diplomatic relations between the US and the Middle East deteriorate after this, and the US National Security Advisor pressures the military to court martial Childers, and find him guilty, regardless of him being guilty or not.

Childers asks Hodges to represent him although Hodges tells him his lawyer skills are not so good, and he needs the best.

Accepting to help Childers, Hodges travels to Yemen, where he finds many women and children badly wounded from the shooting. He also finds a lot of audio tapes thrown on the streets, and he takes one, and sees the embassy undamaged security cameras, although there's no tape with the footage of the riot.

The US National Security Advisor has the video tape, which he watches, he sees what Childers saw in the crowd, many men with machine guns, firing at the embassy! And he decides to burn it, and seal Childers' fate.

I personally enjoyed the movie, and understood why the characters did what they did.

The acting was good, I liked Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones, especially Jones. Blair Underwood was also good, and Ben Kingsley played the stressed and scared ambassador wonderfully. The same can be said about Anne Archer who played his wife.

I don't remember much music being played, it felt the movie was mostly silent.

The movie received negative to mixed reviews, the movie grossed 71 million dollars against a budget of 60 million.

Cinema Score audiences gave it a C- on an A+ to F scale.

Rating : Worth a watch !