A Marine Colonel is brought to court-martial after ordering his men to fire on demonstrators surrounding the American embassy in Yemen.
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CinemaSerf
6
By 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.
