Up for auction "Rules of Engagement" Samuel L. Jackson Hand Signed 8X10 B&W Photo.
Rules
of Engagement is
a 2000 American war and 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
men under Childers' orders kill many civilians outside the U.S. embassy
in Yemen. In 1968 during the Vietnam War, a disastrous
American advance leaves U.S. Marine Lieutenant Hayes Hodges wounded and his men
dead. His squadmate 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 to his poor choice of words when giving his
order. 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.