We've often heard the Marines are looking for a few good men, and director William Friedkin seems intent on creating another "A Few Good Men" in "Rules of Engagement," another drama about the terrible consequences that can result when military officers make the wrong choices in the heat of the moment. In "Rules," that officer is Col. Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson), a 30-year veteran of the Marine Corps who oversees the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. By the time it's all over, 83 Yemenis are dead and more than 100 are wounded.
Everyone agrees there was a demonstration outside the building, that the protesters got a little rowdy and that snipers took a few potshots at the Marines. But there's controversy over whether or not Childers was justified in ordering his troops to fire on the crowd. Some observers insist the Marines were gunning down unarmed civilians; Childers thinks he saw weapons in the hands of some of the women and children.
With an international scandal brewing, the stage is set for a court-martial, and Childers turns to his old friend Col. Hayes Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) to defend him. Since National Security Advisor William Sokal (Bruce Greenwood) has secretly destroyed the videotape that would back up Childers' charges -- "Why should the United States be held responsible for the actions of one man?" Sokal argues -- Hodges and Childers face an uphill battle.
"Rules of Engagement" has some points of interest, not the least of which are the performances of Jones and Jackson. Jackson pours so much barely contained intensity into Childers the audience can't always be sure he was thinking clearly during the incident, and that keeps the interest percolating. After sleepwalking through so many of his recent films ("U.S. Marshals" and "Double Jeopardy" immediately come to mind), Jones again reminds us here what a resourceful, exciting actor he can be. There's entertaining work from the prosecution as well, with Guy Pearce ("L.A. Confidential") contributing an attention-grabbing turn as a showboating lawyer anxious to send Childers to prison.
The acting can only go so far, however, in camouflaging the movie's dullish screenplay. Writer Stephen Gaghan, who trained in television, tends to sacrifice depth and characterization in the name of narrative, meaning we're served copious flashbacks to Childers' experiences in Vietnam but few meaningful details about his personal life. As for Sokal and the weak-willed ambassador (Ben Kingsley) Childers saved, they're pure cardboard, just another pair of easily vilified bureaucrats.
As expected, "Rules" climaxes with the trial, and although Friedkin inserts many extreme close-ups of Childers' angry eyes and Hodges' furrowed brow, the finale still seems awfully cut-and-dried. Unlike the much better "Courage Under Fire," in which viewers had at least four different sides of a story to choose from, "Rules" offers only two, and only one of them is genuinely credible. In a courtroom that's sometimes the case, but in a movie we need a more substantial pay-off after two hours of build-up. James Sanford
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