[attrition] Movie: Rules of Engagement

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/movies/roe.html

Rules of Engagement
2000
review by: martums

A pair of Marines who served together in -- wait for it -- Viet Nam are 
reunited at a retirement party for the one driving a desk. After a 
life-changing injury during a battle in Cou-Lui, Hodges, (Tommy Lee 
Jones), becomes a military attorney and divides his spare time equally 
between fly fishing and alcoholism. Childers, (in an ass-kicking 
performance by Samuel L. Jackson), earns command of the 54th Marine 
Expeditionary Unit. Shortly before Hodges' actual retirement, Childers and 
his Marines are sent in to provide protection for a U.S. Embassy in the 
Middle East. A protest gets out of hand, the shit suddenly hits the fan, 
and the Marines find themselves in the middle of a hornet's nest. They 
come under fire, and after taking casualties, are ultimately ordered to 
return fire. Men, women and children are injured and killed--a horrible 
and massive bloodbath. And before you can say scapegoat, weapons and 
evidence disappear. Childers faces a court martial including multiple 
murder charges. The ensuing shitstorm provides for some excellent drama 
and insight.

Childers naturally reaches out to the first washed-up, burned-out, drunk, 
cynical Marine lawyer he can find: Hodges.

Engagement is one of my all-time favorite films with an all-star cast 
which includes Anne Archer, Ben Kingsley, Blair Underwood, and Guy Pearce.

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