Kaua’i may have been the source for the signature sunset shot being used to promote the film in posters and on its Web site at http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/tearsofthesun/ .
The film takes place in Africa, but was filmed mostly on O’ahu, with some second unit scenes filmed on Kaua’i.
Bruce Willis stars in “Tears of the Sun” as Lt. A.K. Waters, the loyal veteran officer of a Navy S.E.A.L unit in his new film from Columbia Pictures.
Willis’ character is sent into the heart of Africa and finds himself deeply conflicted at having to choose between following orders and the dictates of his own conscience.
Second unit filming on Kaua’i took place over a two day period and locations that appear in the film include moutainscapes in mauka Kilauea. Scenes were also filmed at Kilauea Falls and elements of scenes from Kaua’i are likely part of the composite illustrations being used to promote the film.
Problematic characterization and s of Africa resonate in the recently released Hollywood movie, “Tears of the Sun”, which stars Bruce Willis. Shot in the “jungle” of Hawaii in the US the film is about the rescue of Dr. Lena Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage who was caught in the middle of civil unrest in Nigeria after a military coup. Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists were sent to rescue Dr. Kendricks from a village in Nigeria before a newly installed military leader, a Muslim Fulani, start “ethnic cleansing of Christian Igbos” in the village.
These views of the continent have been greatly shaped by books such as Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and movies like The god must be crazy, The African Queen, and Tarzan. Most excerpts from these “novels, screenplays, movie reviews, and screen advertising demonstrate the vast propaganda our society has witnessed during the past fifty years about Africa as a “savage” place in need of conquest, “colonization”, and Christianity” according to Richard Maynard, author of Africa on Film: myth and reality, The protagonists are always “white men” who are out to save the dying African population.
Nigeria is more than “Fulanis and Igbos.” There are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria . But just like the so-called white historians and experts on African affairs, who have never stepped their feet on African soils, the writer and producers of the Tears of the Sun seemed to have just gathered information about “AFRICA” (which is a small village in the minds of many a man in the Western world) and ritually framed it within the familiar Western dominant cognitive model of “usual African tribal killing“and “barbarism.” Why a need for a painstaking research about the characterization, setting and narrative structure when such a framing is familiar and comforting to audiences who are used to seeing the dehumanization of Africa and Africans; which Chinua Achebe, a Nigeria born world-renowned novelist, said is an “age-long attitude [that] has fostered, and continues to foster in the world” ? At least in the end, the white men triumphed “and the so-called savages were wiped out”, added Niyi Osundare, Commonwealth poetry prize winner.
These problematic characterization and s resonate in the recently released Hollywood movie, “Tears of the Sun”, which stars Bruce Willis and host of others. Shot in the “jungle” of Hawaii in the US (not the jungle of Africa ! as the movie intended to make us believe), the film is about the rescue of Dr. Lena Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage who was caught in the middle of civil unrest in Nigeria after a military coup. Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists were sent to rescue Dr. Kendricks from a village in Nigeria before a newly installed military leader, a Muslim Fulani, start “ethnic cleansing of Christian Igbos” in the village.
While it seems like just an ordinary story for entertainment purpose, the movie through its narrative structure and ry bastardized continent of Africa for to affirm the cultural superiority, economical and political hegemony of the West. With strong symbolism (such as white doves flying away from the village after the white priest was beheaded), hackneyed expressions (such as “God already left Africa”, “That’s what they do”), metaphors and archetype ry of “savages”, “jungle”, and “beasts” in which people with the “hearts of darkness” were killing themselves for no reason, it dehumanized and misrepresented 120 millions of Nigerians and people of Africa as whole. Like the aids donor agencies that often use “the of starving Ethiopian children” from the 1984 Ethiopian famine to depict the “reality of Africa” in their advertisement for fund raising, Tears of the Sun, which has a completely slanted story structure and characterization, opened with graphic footages of shooting and killing. Some of these footages, which were taken from Sorious Samura’s documentary, Cry Freetown, on the Sierra Leone civil war, were used to depict an “ethnic cleansing” in Nigeria . These footages were never referenced to Sierra Leone in an attempt to give an element of reality to the distorted and Hollywood manufactured story of “ethnic cleansing in Nigeria ”— that is Muslim Fulani’s mass massacre of Christian Igbos after a Muslim Fulani military dictator overthrew a democratically elected Nigerian government, of which a Christian Igbo was the president.
Kaua’i is a popular filming site due to its natural beauty. The magnificent island, which is also part of the Hawaiian archipelago, was beautifully caught by the filmmaking crew for ‘Tears of the Sun.’ Mountainscapes from Kilauea, an active shield volcano, are included in a few scenes in the film. The magnificent Kilauea Falls served as a striking background as well. The iconic sunset sequence on the movie’s posters and promotional material was reportedly shot on Kaua’i. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Avatar, and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ are among the other films and television shows shot on the island.
According to reports, a small amount of the film was shot in Los Angeles, California, where the crew took advantage of several indoor and outdoor shooting settings. Because of its lively neighborhoods, diverse ethnic population, and first-rate production facilities, the South Californian city has always been a sought-after movie site. ‘He’s All That,’ ‘Free Guy,’ and ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ have all been filmed in the city.
‘Tears of the Sun’ had its filming locations set in Hawaii, California, and Virginia, among other places in the United States. The filmmaking crew concluded the production in October of the same year after principal photography began in February 2002. Despite the fact that the film is set in Nigeria, most of it was shot in the beautiful state of Hawaii, with a few scenes taken in California. Let’s look at the various filming sites in further detail!
The filmmakers decided to show Nigeria using a variety of interior and outdoor venues for this film. The Dole Plantation, 64-1550 Kamehameha Highway, Wahiawa, and the North Shore village of Haleiwa were used for filming. The majestic Manoa Falls and the breathtakingly picturesque Maunawili Valley are also featured in the film. Kualoa Ranch, which is famed for filming the ‘Jurassic Park’ films and is located at 49560 Kamehameha Highway in Ka’a’awa, was also used to mimic areas of the war-torn African country.
‘Tears of the Sun’ is said to be the first video shot on the USS Harry S. Truman Aircraft Career, which was presumably stationed at the time at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. For several days, players and the film team had unparalleled access to the Nimitz Class nuclear aircraft carrier. Naval officials and soldiers from the aircraft carrier, on the other hand, were always present on set and even appeared in the film as extras to assure the smooth running of affairs and avert any potential problem.
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