Rules of Engagement

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...

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 its in everyones 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 wh...