History YMMV / TearsOfTheSun

* CriticalDissonance: Critics were cold with the film, deriding it as a failed attempt at high-mindedness and giving it just 33% in Website/RottenTomatoes. However, casual viewers were much more positive and doubled that percentage in most reviewing sites (and Creator/RogerEbert, breaking from mainstream critics, gave it ''three of four stars'').

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: At the first sight, and despite what the AmericaSavesTheDay plot might make think, the film draws a substantially cynical view of US military - Waters and Rhodes are initially willing to abandon the refugees to a sure bloodbath, have to be heavily insisted by Dr. Kendricks not to, and even afterwards act unsympathetic towards them. However, according to insiders, the film is actually regarded highly among members of the U.S. military, not only for portraying how realistically unpredictable by definition a mission can be (see ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' for a certainly worse, real life example), but also because, at the end, it captures the humanitarian message they intend to represent.

* NightmareFuel: Pretty much 90% of the movie. The scariest part? These atrocities and horrors committed aren't too out of place as to what happened in RealLife.
* RetroactiveRecognition: The rebel colonel is played by the same actor who plays the Persian messenger in ''Film/ThreeHundred''.

-->"''Look at it, motherfucker! '''Look at your work!!'''''"

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: At the first sight, and despite what the AmericaSavesTheDay plot might make think, the film draws a substantially cynical view of US military - Waters and Rhodes are initially willing to abandon the refugees to a sure bloodhshed, have to be heavily insisted by Dr. Kendricks not to, and even afterwards act unsympathetic towards them. However, according to insiders, the film is actually regarded highly among members of the U.S. military, not only for portraying how realistically unpredictable by definition a mission can be (see ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' for a certainly worse, real life example), but also because, at the end, it captures the humanitarian message they intend to represent.

* CriticalDissonance: Critics were cold with the film, deriding it as a failed attempt at high-mindedness and giving it just 33% in Website/RottenTomatoes. However, casual viewers were much more positive and doubled that percentage in most reviewing sites (and Creator/RogerEbert, breaking from mainstream critics, gave it ''three of four stars''). Nowadays, while not fully a CultClassic, ''Tears of the Sun'' is consistently in the tops of the most underrated war films out there, and is considered as well one of the most interestingly atypical action films in Willis's resume. Zimmer's soundtrack gets also mentioned a lot.

* NamesToRunAwayFrom: Sadick, which looks awful close to Sadist.

* NamesToRunFrom: Sadick, which looks awful close to Sadist.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The "Sun" in ''Tears of the Sun'' could also be taken to mean the Nigerian president's son, the sole survivor of his family.

* NarmCharm: The Edmund Burke quote, cited above. While by that point it can come across as corny and gratuitious, the soundtrack and feel of the ending make it surprisingly ''right'' as well.
* NightmareFuel: Pretty much 90% of the movie. The scariest part? This atrocities and horrors committed aren't too out of place as to what happened in RealLife.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The film might be unsubtle about Africa's atrocities and the need to act on them, but the situation portrayed in the film's Nigeria is actually much LighterAndSofter than the reality of many African countries.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The rebel colonel is played by the same actor who plays the Persian messenger in ''Film/300''.

* FridgeBrilliance: The "Sun" in ''Tears of the Sun'' could also be taken to mean the Nigerian president's son, the sole survivor of his family.

* FridgeBrilliance: The title ''Tears of the Sun'' could also mean the tears of the president's son, the sole survivor of his family.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: At the first sight, and despite what the AmericanSavesTheDayPlot might make think, the film draws a substantially cynical view of US military - Waters and Rhodes are initially willing to abandon the refugees to a sure bloodhshed, have to be heavily insisted by Dr. Kendricks not to, and even afterwards act unsympathetic towards them. However, according to insiders, the film is actually regarded highly among members of the U.S. military, not only for portraying how realistically unpredictable by definition a mission can be (see ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' for certainly worse, real life example), but also because, at the end, it captures the humanitarian message they intend to represent.

-->"''Look at it, motherfucker! '''Look at your work!!'''''"

----

-->"''Look at it, motherfucker! '''Look at your work!!'''''"

* CompleteMonster: [[SociopathicSoldier Colonel Idris Sadick]] is a silent, xenophobic psychopath who [[PsychoSupporter shows full support]] towards General Mustafa Yakubu's violent MilitaryCoup against the democratically elected President Samuel Azuka because it gives people like him a chance to slaughter civilians with impunity, allowing the rebels to [[RapePillageAndBurn rape, torture and kill]] people of all ages, including [[WouldHurtAChild babies]]. Responsible for persecuting the Christian Ygbo tribe with mass killings and ethnic cleansing, Sadick leads his battalion to a hospital mission and gives the order for the rebels to massacre the defenseless people recovering there only mere moments after seeing that a priest had a crucifix on his neck. As part of the plan to kill the last remaining Azuka and destroy the Ygbo's royal bloodline, Sadick blackmails a refugee into wearing a tracking device under the threat that he would execute his entire family if he did not comply, which resulted in the rebels killing even more civilians and half of the main cast.

* CompleteMonster: [[SociopathicSoldier Colonel Idris Sadick]] is a silent, xenophobic psychopath who [[PsychoSupporter shows full support]] towards General Mustafa Yakubu's violent MilitaryCoup against the democratically elected President Samuel Azuka because it gives people like him a chance to slaughter civilians with impunity, allowing the rebels to [[RapePillageAndBurn rape, torture and kill]] people of all ages, including [[WouldHurtAChild babies]]. Responsible for persecuting the christian Ygbo tribe with mass killings and ethnic cleansing, Sadick leads his battalion to a hospital mission and gives the order for the rebels to massacre the defenseless people recovering there only mere moments after seeing that a priest had a crucifix on his neck. As part of the plan to kill the last remaining Azuka and destroy the Ygbo's royal bloodline, Sadick blackmails a refugee into wearing a tracking device under the threat that he would execute his entire family if he did not comply, which resulted in the rebels killing even more civilians and half of the main cast.

* AwesomeMusic: Courtesy of Music/HansZimmer, particularly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3thngs2mbw "Cameroon Border Post"]].

** SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped
* AwesomeMusic: Courtesy of HansZimmer, particularly [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3thngs2mbw "Cameroon Border Post"]].
* HarsherInHindsight: The movie is a lot more difficult to watch knowing that a few years after the movie premiered,a brutal war would break out in northern Nigeria,with many of the same kind of atrocities portrayed here.
* TearJerker: Oh God, yes. The massacre the team stumbles upon being the worst instance, especially when an anguished and enraged Zee collars one of the last suriving rebels and forces him to look down on the dying woman he'd just mutilated before stabbing the man to death:

* CompleteMonster: Sadik

* TearJerker: Oh God, yes. The massacre the team stumbles upon being the worst instance, especially when an anguished and enraged Zee collars one of the last suriving rebels and forces him to look down on the dying woman he'd just mutilated before stabbing the man to death.

* CompleteMonster: Every single rebel, but Sadik stands out in particular.