Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by rico (A) on November 22, 2004 at 08:28:25

William Friedken directed this tale of a military court martial involving a highly decorated 34 year career marine accused of violating the rules of engegament and firing upon civilian muslim demonstrators gathered around the U.S. embassy in Yemen. Samuel L. Jackson plays the marine and he is defended at his request by a marine lawyer friend whose life he once saved in Viet Nam. The friend is played by Tommy Lee Jones and the character is so wounded in Nam that he quits active duty and gets a law degree and then a divorce and then has a long descent into alcoholism. Ben Kingsley is on hand to play the ambassador to Yemen who has a cowardly streak.

The battles and courtroom scenes ar convincing and the movie as a whole holds your attention. The ending is in suspense right up until the very end. The film makers wisely chose not to have a deus ex machina ending involving a crucial piece of withheld eveidence.