A Study of the film "Rules of Engagement"
This story was written with accuracy and authenticity in mind. James Webb, former US Secretary of the Navy, based the script on a story. As far as the acting was concerned, I had a great respect for all the parts. From what Dale Dye, the movie's military adviser said, he wanted to do more than train the cast. Dye was responsible for training them in military combat. Webb, while training the crew for the Vietnam sequences, was quoted as saying: "I had to reach inside their hearts and tell them what we were like in 1968 when we were 20 years old -- what our attitudes were, what seeing that war and that brutality did to us, what it felt like to go for long periods of having nothing and being exhausted all the time and being covered with jungle sores. I had to do this because anytime you lie on a screen, you've done a disservice to America's fighting men and the 58.000 Americans who fell in Vietnam, and I won't allow that."
I have no doubt at all that the portrayal of the military men was authentic. I'm not so sure about the other characters in the movie that didn't have to go through this training. For example, I didn't like Guy Pearce's character. He just didn't have the same spirit that Jones and Jackson's characters did. There was one aspect in particular that I'm not sure the general audience will understand. Jones and Jackson's characters were underdeveloped. I personally don't see this as a problem, but I suppose that comes from reading the character insights before seeing the movie. It’s kind of like with the old movie Kramer vs. Kramer. Ten years after the movie was released, Meryl Streep said that she knew something about here character that no one else did. She said that only her and the director knew that her character never really loved her husband. My point is that there are some aspects to the characters that are not obvious, but are MacGuffins. Meaning, there are things the actors know about their characters that no one else does.
Above all, I have a lot of respect for this military drama, as well as what the production staff and cast went through to bring across authenticity. I realize that the movie has its flaws, but that doesn't change my view any. I really think that anyone
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