A waste of good talent in 'Rules of Engagement'

------------------------------------------------------- Rules of Engagement, ** out of four stars Drama/Thriller, 128 minutes Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Kingsley, Anne Archer. Directed by William Friedkin A Paramount Pictures presentation ---------------------------------------------------------

By Joko E.H. Anwar

JAKARTA (JP): I always find two kinds of films intellectually stimulating, one on politics and two if it is a satire.Wag the Dog is among the recent best in this category along with military film-like A Few Good Men.

These two categories usually make reliable subjects for a film due to their exclusivity from the rest of the world. They have their own codes of honor, which ordinary people find amusing, and when these codes are judged with our common sense of morality, it is then we get our time for brain exercise.

Still, military-themed movies are preferable since they usually involve politics as well, a double treat for the audience.

Marine courtroom drama Rules of Engagement, however, can do more. However, it fails to engage the audience due to the filmmakers' lack of faith on which truth they really stand for.

It's as if the filmmakers left the final resolution of the movie for us to decide while they were still trying to convince themselves on the issue.

We can clearly see this from the lack of real ending in the film. It seems like the film just stopped, leaving the audience hungry for a payoff after watching this pretty long film.

The film itself opens pretty well, making me hope that it would be as gripping as the underrated military drama The Siege with Denzel Washington and Annette Bening, which shared a similar theme, and, just like Rules of Engagement, only received luke warm reviews.

However, as you sit through patiently for more than two hours, you will not feel properly rewarded.

Excellent Jackson and good Lee Jones play two marine officers, Hayes Hodges and Terry Childers respectively, whose friendship goes way back to the Vietnam War in 1968 where they fought side by side.

In the war, Childers saved Hodges' life by shooting an unarmed POW, which is against the Marine's Rules of Engagement, but he also released another which makes us believe that he is basically a good person.

Wounded in the war, Hodges becomes unfit for real action. Still, he cannot get away, and manages to get a law degree and becomes a Marine lawyer.

Childers, however, continues his career on an excellent path, leading a rescue mission into Yemen where the U.S. ambassador is trapped inside his office with angry demonstrators firing from outside.

The mission turns ugly after Childers orders his men to open fire on the crowd. Eighty-three people are killed and hundreds more wounded.

The next day, the massacre, which also takes the life of women and children, becomes headlines in every newspaper in the U.S., and probably in the world.

The official statement has it that the protesters were unarmed, although National Security Advisor Bill Sokal (Bruce Greenwood) has a videotape which can prove otherwise.

However, Sokal thinks that it is better to blame Childers for the killings instead of the entire country.

Soon, Childers is court-martialled and his career is in jeopardy.

As expected, he wants Hodges to defend him. In fact, it seems only Hodges, and not even the ambassador (Ben Kingsley), can help him.

The second half of the film focuses on the trial where prosecuting attorney Major Biggs (Pearce) is determined to bring Childers down.

None of the trial scenes, however, is interesting enough to keep us watching. After a few scenes, I did not even dare compare the film with the great A Few Good Men, which also tells of a decorated Marine officer being tried for misconduct.

Anne Archer, who plays the ambassador's wife, testifies against her husband and helps to get Childers off the hook, seems to be nothing but a character who can be disposed of.

She is great but the film does not give her space to do more.

Jackson and Lee Jones are reliable always. But they hardly had their moments like they did in their earlier films.

The film remains a misfire from a director of such good movies like The Exorcist and The French Connection. So, maybe, you should just wait until it appears on VCD.