Question about the movie "Rules of Engagement"

[gstelmack]

A month after TIVO-ing it off TNT, I finally got to watch the movie "Rules of Engagement". And while in general I thought the movie was decent, dealing well with how the rules change when in combat, I was left feeling dissatisfied with how they handled a key part of the story.


**** Spoiler Warning ****





I was very disappointed that they cut off the story about the video tape evidence. It seemed like Tommy Lee Jones does a good job hammering the State Department about the tape, he visits the NSA right before the trial verdict to threaten him, then they give the verdict, and the movie ends with the note that the Ambassador was found guilty of perjury and the NSA was found guilty of destroying evidence. Nothing really in between. I felt like there was a big part of the story about either proving more about what happened with the tape, or someone besides Tommy Lee acknowledging the tape problem, or the NSA assistant who delivered the tape early in the movie stepping forward, or the ambassador's son going on the stand, or SOMETHING.

So my big question is: did TNT leave out a key scene or two in the interests of time compression for TV? Is this all going to make more sense if I watch the DVD? Or did the release movie really do that poor a job of tying up the "proving what actually happened" end of the story?

[Barkeep49]

It's been a while but I really do believe they did that poor of a job.

[Ben E Lou]

I own the movie. Great movie, until the end. Yes, they did that bad of a job. I was sorely disappointed when I first saw it, but now that I know how bad the ending was, I can enjoy it up until then.

I do, however, LOVE the salute from Binh Le Kao. Brings chills or a tear to my eye every time.

[gstelmack]

I own the movie. Great movie, until the end. Yes, they did that bad of a job. I was sorely disappointed when I first saw it, but now that I know how bad the ending was, I can enjoy it up until then.Disappointing, but thanks for saving me the $15 it would have cost me to buyt the DVD.

I do, however, LOVE the salute from Binh Le Kao. Brings chills or a tear to my eye every time.That's part of the reason I was so disappointed. They did a FANTASTIC job with the whole "I'd do things in combat in a heartbeat that I'd NEVER do outside of combat, and that doesn't mean I'm insane or a crackpot" storyline. They just completely dropped the ball on the politics and the jury. When they send the jury off things look grim, and then they never explain why they came up with the verdict they did, especially since it was a split verdict.

I was a happy man up until the last 5 minutes or so. Even with the cheesy "buddy fight" between Jones and Jackson.