A Marine Colonel is brought to court-martial after ordering his men to fire on demonstrators surrounding the American embassy in Yemen.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Col. Hayes Lawrence “Hodge” Hodges II: Tommy Lee Jones
- Col. Terry L. Childers: Samuel L. Jackson
- Maj. Mark Biggs: Guy Pearce
- Ambassador Mourain: Ben Kingsley
- National Security Advisor Bill Sokal: Bruce Greenwood
- Mrs. Mourain: Anne Archer
- Capt. Lee: Blair Underwood
- Gen. H. Lawrence Hodges: Philip Baker Hall
- Gen. Perry: Dale Dye
- Dr. Ahmar: Amidou
- Tom Chandler: Mark Feuerstein
- Hayes Hodges III: Nicky Katt
- Corporal Hustings: Ryan Hurst
- Lawyer: John Speredakos
- Col. Binh Le Cao: Baoan Coleman
- Judge: Richard McGonagle
- Talk Show Host (voice): G. Gordon Liddy
- Officer #1: Todd Kimsey
Film Crew:
- Director: William Friedkin
- Producer: Scott Rudin
- Producer: Richard D. Zanuck
- Original Music Composer: Mark Isham
- Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan
- Director of Photography: Nicola Pecorini
- Editor: Augie Hess
- Co-Producer: Arne Schmidt
- Executive Producer: Adam Schroeder
- Story: Jim Webb
- Director of Photography: William A. Fraker
- Casting: Denise Chamian
- Script Supervisor: P.R. Tooke
- Production Design: Robert W. Laing
- Costume Design: Gloria Gresham
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Greg P. Russell
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Kevin O’Connell
- Supervising Sound Editor: Steve Boeddeker
- Supervising Sound Editor: Mike Szakmeister
- Sound Editor: Ronald Eng
- Sound Editor: Chris Scarabosio
- Still Photographer: Sam Emerson
- Camera Operator: Mark Van Loon
- Camera Operator: Pete Cavaciuti
- Art Direction: William Cruse
- Art Department Assistant: Alan Day
- Assistant Art Director: Andy Nicholson
- Lead Painter: Christopher Woodworth
- Leadman: William S. Maxwell III
- First Assistant Camera: Robert Heine
- Costume Supervisor: Mitchell Ray Kenney
- Hairstylist: Cydney Cornell
- Key Hair Stylist: Gail Rowell-Ryan
- Makeup Artist: Allan A. Apone
- Prosthetic Makeup Artist: Brian Penikas
- Set Costumer: Kelly Porter
- Set Dressing Artist: Carl Catanese
- Armorer: David Fencl
- Carpenter: Tony Capasso
- Chef: Peter Hansen
- Dialect Coach: Tim Monich
- Driver: Edward Cook
- Loader: Stacy De La Motte
- Production Controller: Kieran Woo
- Propmaker: Thomas Cooper
- Special Effects Coordinator: Richard Wood
- Stunt Coordinator: Buddy Joe Hooker
- Stunts: Jeff ‘JJ’ Dashnaw
- Systems Administrators & Support: Jason Shea
- Transportation Captain: Austin Thompson
- Transportation Coordinator: Dusty Saunders
- Unit Production Manager: Roberto Malerba
- Video Assist Operator: Wayne Tidwell
- Visual Effects Editor: Debra Wolff
- Color Timer: Terry Haggar
- Best Boy Electric: Alessio Bramucci
- Electrician: Bryan Booth
- Gaffer: Patrick Bramucci
- Lighting Technician: Stephen Thorp
- Rigging Gaffer: Martin Bosworth
- Rigging Grip: Daniel Dietrich
- Location Manager: David Israel
- Production Accountant: Norma Smith
- Production Coordinator: Nanette Siegert
- Production Supervisor: Carlos H. Sánchez
- Boom Operator: Michael A. Patillo
- Assistant Sound Editor: Beau Borders
- Music Editor: Tom Carlson
- Sound Engineer: Hanson Hsu
- Special Effects Supervisor: Paul J. Lombardi
- Visual Effects Coordinator: Joel Román Mendías
- Visual Effects Producer: Denise Ballantyne
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Erik Nash
- Dolby Consultant: Thom ‘Coach’ Ehle
- Stand In: Cullen G. Chambers
- Stunts: Dick Ziker
- Property Master: Barry Bedig
- First Assistant Director: Newt Arnold
- Dialogue Editor: Carin Rogers
- Foley Editor: Scott Curtis
- Foley Editor: Tammy Fearing
- Foley Mixer: Randy K. Singer
- Sound Mixer: Russell Williams II
- Foley Artist: Sarah Monat
- Foley Artist: Robin Harlan
- Supervising ADR Editor: Robert Ulrich
- Supervising ADR Editor: Kerry Dean Williams
- ADR Mixer: Dean Drabin
- Stunts: Lance Gilbert
- First Assistant Editor: Darrin Navarro
- Assistant Editor: Fred C. Vitale
- Pilot: Cliff Fleming
- Pilot: Craig Hosking
- Pilot: John T. Scanlon
- Pilot: Rick Shuster
- Costume Assistant: Lahcen Abbana
- Second Assistant Director: Marty Jedlicka
- Second Second Assistant Director: Michael Salven
- Assistant Production Manager: Hamid Ait Timaghrit
- Assistant Property Master: Scott M. Anderson
- Title Designer: Nina Saxon
- ADR Editor: Petra Bach
- Sound Assistant: Karym Ronda
- Utility Sound: Ronald L. Wright
- Special Effects Technician: Terry Erickson
- Visual Effects Production Assistant: Rob Feng
- Stunt Double: Clifford Happy
- Clapper Loader: Sam Barnes
- Dolly Grip: Mark Meyers
- First Company Grip: J. Michael Popovich
- Focus Puller: Jonathan Sykes
- Second Assistant Camera: Matthew Moriarty
- Casting Assistant: Stacie Goodman
- Assistant Editor: John M. Vitale
- Negative Cutter: Dana L. Marker
- Location Casting: Mark Fincannon
- Assistant Accountant: Kelley Baker
- Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: Don Yamasaki
- Assistant Production Coordinator: Jennifer Blair
- Assistant Unit Manager: Aziz Hamichi
- Chief Lighting Technician: Doug Pentek
- Executive Assistant: Eben Davidson
- First Assistant Accountant: Nicki McCain
- Production Assistant: Craig Andujar
- Production Consultant: Melissa Schuermann
- Location Manager: Vito Colazzo
Movie Reviews:
- 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.
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