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US
Vs UK - In the United Kingdom, Colonel Childers would be more likely to
be convicted of murder, based on the flawed testimony of several
witnesses, and a total lack of exonerating evidence. In the case of the British
Bulldog, in exactly the same way, the State saw to it that the
evidence needed to defend, was never provided to the defence. In the UK,
the state controls the crime scene and Legal Aid does not (did not)
extend to obtaining independent forensic medical evidence. Barrister
Julian Dale, and Solicitor Timothy Stirmey confirmed that to the
defendant. Later, barristers in England went on strike because Legal Aid
fees were so low, they were unable to defend their clients. The King (or
Queen) as Head of State, is responsible for ensuring that their subjects
are treated fairly, with a government that provides an effective
administration. We think this true story will show it to be anything but
the case in a Britain that is seriously in debt, hence, looking to save
money by denying those accused of serious crimes, with a viable defence.
That is aside from the corruption in local government, and collusion by
Wealden and Sussex police, working with the CPS to rig the deck.
This
story is based on the real life events, that led to Colonel Terry
Childers being charged with murder. In war, murder is opening fire on,
or killing an unarmed person. Whereas, in the battlefield, it is
perfectly acceptable to fire on the enemy. Similarly to Colonel
Childers, Victor, 'The Colonial Bulldog', is an innocent man. Framed
once by Wealden
District Council, as to the truth about the Old
Pump House in 1985, and again by Sussex
Police between 2006 - 2008, when their partners in crime, Wealden,
were about to be unfrocked about the fraud the police had helped to
cover up for over 25 years. If the police were honest, they'd be
prosecuting this council and the officers involved for fraud. The fact
they are sitting on their hands, is proof of their conspiracy and
dishonesty. The Planning Inspectorate are just as guilty, having been
recently apprised of their part in the conspiracy, since they repeatedly
failed to ascertain the truth or make proper enquiries themselves
between 1985 and 2023, as is the State,
for allowing this injustice to persist.
Rules of Engagement is a 2000 American war legal drama film, directed by William Friedkin, written by Stephen Gaghan, from a story by Jim Webb, and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays U.S. Marine Colonel Terry Childers, who is brought to court-martial after soldiers under his orders kill several civilians outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen.
PLOT
In 1968 during the Vietnam War, a disastrous American advance leaves U.S. Marine Lieutenant Hayes Hodges wounded and his men dead. His fellow platoon leader Lieutenant Terry Childers executes a North Vietnamese prisoner to intimidate a captive officer into calling off a mortar attack on Hodges' position; sparing the officer's life, Childers rescues Hodges. In 1996, Hodges, now a colonel, is set to retire after 28 years as a JAG officer. At his pre-retirement party at the Camp Lejeune Officers Club, he is honored by his old friend, Colonel Terry Childers, now the commanding officer of a Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Childers and his unit are deployed to Southwest Asia as part of an Amphibious Readiness Group, called to evacuate the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen when a routine anti-American demonstration at the embassy erupts in rock-throwing, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire. Escorting Ambassador Mourain and his family safely to a helicopter, Childers retrieves the embassy's American flag. Under heavy fire from snipers on nearby rooftops, three Marines are killed, and Childers orders his men to open fire on the crowd, resulting in the deaths of 83 irregular Yemeni soldiers and civilians, including children; the remaining Marines and embassy staff are saved.
U.S. National Security Advisor Bill Sokal pressures the military to court-martial Childers, hoping to salvage American relations in the Middle East by placing all blame for the incident on the colonel. Childers asks Hodges to serve as his defense attorney, and he reluctantly accepts. Hodges rejects a plea deal from the prosecutor, Major Biggs, who is convinced of Childers' guilt but privately refuses to consider the death penalty. With little time to prepare a defense, Hodges goes to Yemen, where witnesses and police claim that the Marines fired first on the unarmed crowd. Visiting the abandoned embassy and some of the wounded, he notices an undamaged security camera and scattered audio cassette tapes.
Returning to the U.S., Hodges confronts Childers about the complete lack of evidence to support his version of events, resulting in a fistfight. Sokal burns a videotape revealing the crowd was armed and fired on the Marines, and forces Mourain to lie on the stand that the crowd was peaceful, and that Childers ignored his orders and was violent and disrespectful to him and his family. Hodges meets with Mourain's wife, who admits Childers acted valiantly but refuses to testify. Captain Lee, who hesitated to follow Childers' order, is unable to testify to having seen gunfire from the crowd. A Yemeni doctor testifies that the tapes Hodges found are propaganda inciting violence against Americans, but declares the protest was peaceful.
With Sokal on the stand, Hodges presents a shipping manifest proving that the tape from the undamaged camera – the tape Sokal burned – was delivered to Sokal's office but disappeared, with footage that would likely have exonerated Childers. Taking the stand, Childers explains that he was the only surviving Marine able to see the crowd was armed. On cross-examination, Biggs goads Childers into admitting that he ordered his men to open fire by shouting "waste the motherfuckers". Childers loses his temper, declaring that he would not sacrifice the lives of his men to appease the likes of Biggs, to Hodges' dismay.
The prosecution presents Colonel Binh Le Cao, the Vietnamese officer whose life he spared, as a rebuttal witness, testifying that Childers executed an unarmed prisoner of war. During Hodges' cross-examination, Cao agrees that Childers took action to save American lives, and that if circumstances were reversed, Cao would have done the same. After the trial, Hodges confronts Sokal about the missing tape, vowing to uncover the truth. Childers is found guilty of the minor charge of breach of peace, but cleared of conduct unbecoming an officer, and murder; Biggs approaches Hodges about investigating Childers' actions in Vietnam, but Hodges declines to testify. Leaving the courthouse, Cao and Childers salute each other.
An epilogue reveals that Sokal was found guilty of destroying evidence and Mourain of perjury, both losing their jobs, while Childers retired honorably.
CAST
Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Hayes Hodges
Samuel L. Jackson as Colonel Terry L. Childers
Guy Pearce as Major Mark Biggs
Bruce Greenwood as Bill Sokal
Blair Underwood as Captain Lee
Philip Baker Hall as General H. Lawrence Hodges
Nicky Katt as Hayes Lawrence Hodges III
Dale Dye as Major General Perry
Mark Feuerstein as Captain Tom Chandler
Amidou as Doctor Ahmar
Richard McGonagle as the judge
Gordon Clapp as Harris
Ryan Hurst as Captain Hustings
Anne Archer as Mrs. Mourain
Ben Kingsley as Ambassador Mourain
PRODUCTION
The script was based on an original screenplay by James Webb, who developed it alongside producer Scott Rudin, with Sylvester Stallone in talks to star in the film. William Friedkin was hired to direct, but had trouble collaborating with Webb on script rewrites. Rudin passed the project over to Richard Zanuck, who then hired Stephen Gaghan to work on the screenplay. Webb hated Gaghan's work and frustrated the filmmaker's attempts to receive cooperation from the Department of Defense, which was eventually obtained nonetheless.
Location shooting took place in Morocco, Nokesville, Virginia, Warrenton, Virginia (military base scenes), Hunting Island, South Carolina (Vietnam scenes), and Mount Washington, Virginia (Gen. Hodges' estate scenes).
CRITICS & BOX OFFICE
The budget for this movie was $60 million, box office $71.7 million. With follow on video and on demand sales, not included.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 97 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The script is unconvincing and the courtroom action is unengaging." On Metacritic it has a score of 45% based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it two and a half out of four stars, praising its "expert melodrama" while criticizing an "infuriating screenplay". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that the film was "lazily plotted, grotesquely dishonest, and dripping with a creepy strain of Islamophobia".
Charles Gittins, writing from a legal perspective for CNN, wrote that "the movie succeeds in capturing the details of a successful military operation and showing the possible political fallout from such an operation. The drama lags, however, once it enters the courtroom where Rules of Engagement is neither accurate nor compelling."
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee described it as "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood", comparing it with The Birth of a Nation and The Eternal Jew. Director William Friedkin, dismissed accusations that the film was racist:
"Let me state right up front, the film is not anti-Arab, is not anti-Muslim and is certainly not anti-Yemen. In order to make the film in Morocco, the present King of Morocco had to read the script and approve it and sign his name ... and nobody participating from the Arab side of things felt that the film was anti-Arab. The film is anti-terrorist. It takes a strong stand against terrorism and it says that terrorism wears many faces ... but we haven't made this film to slander the government of Yemen. It's a democracy and I don't believe for a moment they support terrorists any more than America does."
Friedkin later stated the film "was a box office hit but many critics saw it as jingoism". He says that James Webb later saw the film on the recommendation of his friend Colonel David Hackworth; Webb then rang Friedkin to say how much he liked it.
The
US has a Written Constitution, meaning that if the accused had been
found guilty, he would have had a right of appeal. But, in the US,
unlike in the UK, a Jury is unlikely to convict where vital evidence is
missing. In the UK, a Judge can instruct a Jury to make of it what they
will ... In other words, go ahead and convict ....
MOVIE INFO
Django
Unchained 2012
Double
Jeopardy 1999
Enemy
of the State 1998
Mr
Bates Vs The Post Office (Horizon) 2024
John
Wick 2014
Gladiator
2000
Rambo
First Blood 1982
Rules
of Engagement 2000
Sisu
2023
The
Bonfire of the Vanities 1990
The
Crown, Netflix 2013 - 2023
The
Fugitive 1993
Yes
(Prime) Minister 1980 - 1988
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