History Film / TearsOfTheSun

* HeyItsThatGuy: Wait, was [[Film/DieHard John McClain]] just [[spoiler: betrayed by]] [[Series/{{Heroes}} the Haitian]]?

* HarsherInHindsight: The movie is a lot more difficult to watch knowing that a few years after the movie premiered,a brutal war would break out in northern Nigeria,with many of the same kind of atrocities portrayed here.

* LastOfHisKind: Played with. [[spoiler: Arthur Azuka, the surviving son of deposed Nigerian President Samuel Azuka, and also a de facto tribal leader, is amongst the refugees, and the main reason the whole party is being hunted in the first place.]]

It received a mixed critical reception, and is generally regarded by most critics as a workaday action movie with very little outstanding quality. Some disagree, however, and Creator/RogerEbert gave it three stars out of four, saying that is basically a very good and thoughtful war movie hidden inside a good and mindless war movie.

* FiveManBand: Way more than five actually.
** TheHero: LT
** TheLancer: Red
** TheBigGuy: Zee
** TheSmartGuy: Slo
** TheMedic: Doc
** TheChick: Kendricks
** TagAlongKid: Arthur
** SixthRanger: Mohawk, Silk, and Flea.

* ImprobableAge: Inverted. Someone as old as Waters should not be a Lieutenant, he should be in a command post or out of the service.

* RedemptionQuest: Lampshaded.

* ImprobableAge: Inverted. Someone as old as Waters should not be a Lieutenant, he should be in a command post or out of the service.
** If you assume he commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy at the max allowable age of 35 years old, then made Lieutenant after 4-5 years, he could still conceivably be a Lieutenant[[note]] [[CommonRanks A Navy lieutenant is equivalent to an Army captain in the US military[[/note]] at around Bruce Willis's age when the movie was made. This could imply that Waters was a prior-enlisted sailor who decided to commission later in his career.
** It is also not impossible that he was a Petty Officer or a Chief for many years, and transferred to OCS. Or he could be an immigrant who has joined the US military to gain citizenship, and thus had to serve 5 years as an enlisted man before he gained the US citizenship required to become an Officer.

Lt. A.K. Waters is a veteran Navy SEAL whose commander (has given his team a special assignment. A Central African nation is expected to explode into war at any moment, and Waters and his cohorts are to escort any American citizens in the area to safety, most notably Dr. Lena Kendricks, a doctor from the United States who has set up a clinic in the jungle. Waters and his men find Kendricks, but she refuses to leave with them unless she can bring along 70 refugees who have been left to her care. Kendricks makes it clear that if they are left behind, the refugees will face certain death, but Waters's C.O. insists he bring back Kendricks -- but not her patients. Forced by his conscience to disobey orders, Waters and his team race against time to escort the refugees to a border town where they will find safe haven before invading troops can ambush them.

* ChoosingDeath: The other missionaries working with Dr. Hendricks refuse to abandon the sick and wounded in their field hospital, staying with them despite knowing full well that they will all be butchered once the rebels close in.

* ChildSoldiers: One of the soldiers participating in the massacre at the village is one. Mohawk (who shot him) is deeply rattled.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Played straight and Adverted, specially in the aftermath of the fight at the village, with the dying female villager.

* InfantImmortality: Adverted. Twice.

* HollywoodTactics: Played straight and averted from scene to scene. The [=SEALs=] do correctly (and ''instantly'') charge the ambush they get caught in, though.[[hottip:note: American doctrine is to charge a close range ambush, the idea being to immediately get out of the killzone. For a long range ambush, American forces would attempt to break contact.]]

** If you assume he commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy at the max allowable age of 35 years old, then made Lieutenant after 4-5 years, he could still conceivably be a Lieutenant[[hottip:note: [[CommonRanks A Navy lieutenant is equivalent to an Army captain in the US military]] at around Bruce Willis's age when the movie was made. This could imply that Waters was a prior-enlisted sailor who decided to commission later in his career.

'''''Tears of the Sun''''' is an 2003 American war film, depicting a United States Navy SEAL team rescue mission amidst a civil war in the West African country of Nigeria. Lt. A.K. Waters (BruceWillis) commands the team sent to rescue U.S. citizen Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (MonicaBellucci) from the civil war en route to her jungle hospital.

* HospitalHottie: Well, Dr. Kendricks is played by MonicaBellucci.

-->-'''RogerEbert'''

It received a mixed critical reception, and is generally regarded by most critics as a workaday action movie with very little outstanding quality. Some disagree, however, and RogerEbert gave it three stars out of four, saying that is basically a very good and thoughtful war movie hidden inside a good and mindless war movie.

* FriendlySniper: Both "Flea" and "Silk" can be considered this. Despite using an M4 and M14 as their main weapons.

* HollywoodTactics: Played straight and averted from scene to scene. The [=SEALs=] do correctly (and ''instantly'') charge the ambush they get caught in, though.[[hottip:note: American doctrine is to charge a close range ambush, the idea being to immediately get out of the killzone.]]

** It is also not impossible that he was a Sergeant for many years, and transferred to OCS. Or he could be an immigrant who has joined the US military to gain citizenship, and thus had to serve 5 years as an enlisted man before he gained the US citizenship required to become an Officer.

* KillItWithFire: F-18s dropping bombs on the rebels that were pursuing the team.

* OutrunTheFireball: Inverted. When the F-18s are coming in for a bombing run the survivors have to scream for Red to hurry and make it out of the blast zone, as he won't be able to outrun the fireball.

''Tears of the Sun'' is an 2003 American war film, depicting a United States Navy SEAL team rescue mission amidst a civil war in the West African country of Nigeria. Lt. A.K. Waters (BruceWillis) commands the team sent to rescue U.S. citizen Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (MonicaBellucci) from the civil war en route to her jungle hospital.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: A beef many critics had with the film.
** Which is ironic since the last thing the US wanted to do, in the film, was to be officially and directly involved.

* WhiteMansBurden: Only if you're really cynical, specially regarding the message of the movie, which was basically "Just be human and do the right thing if you have the power to do so", rather than America having to shoulder responsibility for everyone around the world and save them from themselves, which is what detractors of movie feel this was about.

* StockSoundEffects: The crying newborn sound effect, used for a 3-4 year old kid. [[SpecialEffectFailureMade even more jarring by having it start playing and the kid is not even opening its mouth]].

* StockSoundEffects: The crying newborn sound effect, used for a 3-4 year old kid. Made even more jarring by having it start playing and the kid is not even opening its mouth.

* HollywoodTactics: Played straight and averted from scene to scene. The [=SEALs=] do correctly (and ''instantly'') charge the ambush they get caught in, though.[[note]]American doctrine is to charge a close range ambush, the idea being to immediately get out of the killzone.[[/note]

* ObligatoryWarCrimesScene: Very cleverly and shockingly done when the team has to clear a village in which the enemy troops are massacring and raping the inhabitants. This is probably the goriest and yet best sequence in the film.

It received a mixed critical reception, and is generally regarded by most critics as a workaday action movie with very little outstanding quality. Some disagree, however, and RogerEbert gave it three stars out of four, saying that is basically a very good war movie hidden inside a good war movie. It is certainly worth a watch, however.