 | | Ambassador (Ben Kingsley). |
“This is a fictional story,” says Richard D Zanuck, “but it’s a story you can read about in the paper every day. Our embassies are under siege. They’ve attracted protesters for years, and some have been bombed with great loss of life.
“While there may seem to be bad guys in the film,” continues the producer, who first worked with Rules of Engagement director William Friedkin nearly 30 years ago on his Academy Award-winning The French Connection, “there really aren’t - not even the National Security Adviser. His motives are not personal: he thinks he’s doing what’s best for the US under tragic circumstances. He thinks what was done in Yemen was the act of one reckless, careless individual and wants the world to know, so that it doesn’t hold the US responsible.
 | | William Friedkin on set with veteran producer Richard D Zanuck. |
| RULES OF ENGAGEMENT |
A Paramount Pictures presentation in
association with
Seven Arts Pictures.
Prod: Richard D Zanuck, Scott Rudin; Exec prod: Adam Schroeder, James Webb; Co-prod: Arne Schmidt; Dir: William Friedkin; Scr: Stephen Gaghan, based on a story by James Webb; Ph: William Fraker, Nicola Pecorini; Prod des: Robert Laing; Cost des: Gloria Gresham; Ed: Augie Hess; Stunt co-ord: Buddy Joe Hooker; Military adv: Dale Dye.
With Tommy Lee Jones (Colonel Hays Hodges), Samuel L Jackson (Colonel Terry Childers), Guy Pearce (Major Mark Biggs), Philip Baker Hall (General H Lawrence Hodges), Bruce Greenwood (National Security Adviser William Sokal), Blair Underwood (Captain Lee), Ben Kingsley (Ambassador Mourain), Anne Archer (Mrs Mourain), Mark Feuerstein (Captain Tom Chandler).
International
distribution: Paramount Pictures/Seven Arts International.
|
“This is a film about friendship and loyalty and the role of the modern military,” concludes Friedkin, who won Oscars for both The French Connection (1971) and, two years later, for The Exorcist. “In every military operation, there is a different set of rules that are drawn up for that particular operation. The question of this film is whether or not the rules were followed.”
 | | William Friedkin on set with Samuel L Jackson. |
Rules of Engagement was shot in the spring and early summer of last year, with locations in South Carolina, northern Virginia and Washington, DC - and in the town of Ouarzazate in the Atlas mountains of Morocco, which stood in for Yemen. This was a relatively easy matter, since Ouarzazate, like Yemen itself, is primarily Berber-populated and has very similar architecture. Slightly more difficult, though, was preparing the two lead actors for their military roles.
For the desert warfare scenes, the actors trained in the same way as the Marines would have for similar combat.
“This is a fictional story, but it’s a story you can read about in the paper every day”
Richard D Zanuck.. |
They even spent a week in the desert, recalls Blair Underwood, who plays second-in-command Captain Lee, “sleeping under the stars, sleeping on the ground, fighting scorpions, centipedes, the whole nine yards. It was hard work, but it was a life experience I’ll never forget.”
Jackson and Jones likewise had to convince the real Marines with whom they trained. “We had to work our way into the company,” says the former. “It was up to us to find a way to get our own respect from those guys.”
And respect, ultimately, is what it is all about.
Mrs Mourain (Anne Archer).
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