BRUCE TURNS IT LOOSE PROMOTING HIS FIRST BIG ACTION MOVIE IN 5 YEARS, WILLIS COMES ACROSS AS ALL PATRIOT, NO ACT.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Listening to Bruce Willis share his feelings about a proposed fourth ``Die Hard'' movie proves instructive in relation to his latest foray into the action world, ``Tears of the Sun,'' which opens today.

Willis: ``Fox certainly wants it to happen, but I think they have a tough job ahead of them. Because within the genre of the three 'Die Hard' films that have already been done, it's always been about terrorism. And to do a film about terrorism right now doesn't seem like a very good idea. It's up to them. I told them I'd be more than happy to do another one if they can get the script organized.''

You see the push-pull dynamic. To make an escapist movie about terrorism after 9-11 would seem exploitative. And there's a question about just how much reality moviegoers want with their popcorn. Yet, generic action movies that take place in the real world - not Middle-earth or within the Matrix or a comic-book land - seem irrelevant now that headlines of war, terrorism and nerve-jangling security threats routinely outstrip anything that Hollywood can produce.

Enter ``Tears of the Sun,'' a film that began its life as a run-of-the mill action movie and, under the direction of ``Training Day'' director Antoine Fuqua, changed into an altogether grittier project that will challenge audiences' willingness to mix grim reality with action heroics.

``Tears'' has Willis playing a Navy SEAL who leads a squadron trying to save a group of Nigerian refugees from a ruthless rebel army intent on genocide. The movie's centerpiece is a graphic, 18-minute scene where Willis' SEAL team comes across the rebels while they are systematically killing, raping and torturing the inhabitants of a Nigerian village. It's a depiction of ethnic cleansing that could have been taken from Nigeria's own recent history, which isn't surprising since Fuqua kept photo books of genocidal atrocities handy while he was shooting the movie.

For the most part, though, ``Tears of the Sun'' follows the standard beats that action movie fans have come to expect. There's a beautiful damsel in distress (Monica Bellucci, wearing a low-cut top), plenty of firefights and explosions and a distinctly pro-American slant to the entire enterprise. The film ends with a quote from 18th-century British politician Edmund Burke that could pass as a message from the Bush White House: ``Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.''

Military might

Not surprisingly, the film's distributor, Columbia Pictures, has been selling ``Tears'' based on the firefights and explosions, Willis' action-star status and Bellucci's beauty. During a recent round of interviews, producers Arnold Rifkin (Willis' former agent and now producing partner) and Ian Bryce repeatedly made a point of calling ``Tears'' a ``rescue'' movie, not a ``political'' film.

Harry Humphries, a one-time Navy SEAL who consulted on ``Tears'' and has worked with whiz-bang producer Jerry Bruckheimer on movies like ``Con Air'' and ``Pearl Harbor,'' calls the film something more.

``It's the greatest recruitment poster that exists,'' Humphries says.

Indeed, Willis says that after making ``Tears,'' he would gladly make another ``10 or 20'' movies about men in the armed forces.

``These guys are out there doing a really dangerous, difficult job, putting their lives on the line so we can sit here and talk about whatever we want,'' Willis says. ``When we went on board the USS Harry Truman to film, I got such a patriotic feeling from meeting these kids. I was just talking to them and asking them, 'Why do you do it?' They just believe in what the United States stands for.''

Fuqua, too, calls himself a ``big believer in the military,'' but he also wanted ``Tears'' to emphasize the plight of the African people. Ethnic butchery and civil wars have killed millions through starvation and violence in the past few decades, so much so that when Fuqua decided to cast 300 Africans as extras, he found that most of them had lost at least one family member to tragedy. Their presence provides the movie with its strongest degree of realism.

``They experienced these things,'' Fuqua says. ``You can't get that look in their eyes. I can't even begin to understand what they've seen and been through. It helped keep me honest.''

Or at least as honest as he could be. Fuqua wanted to make a movie about man's inhumanity to man. The studio - and, to a lesser degree, Willis - wanted a triumphant movie about a Navy SEAL squadron's bravery. In the end, ``Tears of the Sun'' features elements of both. But, Fuqua admits, by compromising some areas, the movie as a whole becomes more about escapism than an indictment of indifference.

``Of course, I wanted to kill all the Navy SEALs at the end of the movie,'' Fuqua says. ``None of them would make it out. Because it doesn't matter. It's their deed, what they attempted to do, that's important. But obviously, it's Hollywood. It's a movie. I couldn't get away with it. I tried, though. I really tried.''

Not all action

Willis clearly has conflicted feelings on the subject. The actor, who will turn 48 later this month, has long been the most adventuresome member of the A-list action set, someone who's willing to take pay cuts to work with gifted directors like Terry Gilliam (``Twelve Monkeys'') and Quentin Tarantino (``Pulp Fiction''). < Lately, the man who began his career as a motor-mouth on TV's ``Moonlighting'' has taken to playing quieter characters in movies like M. Night Shyamalan's ``The Sixth Sense'' and ``Unbreakable'' while keeping his hand in comedy (``The Whole Nine Yards,'' ``Bandits''). ``Tears of the Sun'' marks Willis' first full-bore action movie since he made ``Armageddon'' five years ago.

``I could just do 'Die Hards' for the rest of my life and simply play that character and I'd probably make an OK living,'' Willis says. ``But as much as my job is to be entertaining, I also need to keep myself interested in the work. And for a long time, I haven't been interested in making a 'Bruce Willis action movie.' That would bore me, and I think the audience would be bored, too.''

The events of 9-11 seem to have changed Willis' mind. Rifkin tells a story about being in Manhattan with Willis the day after the terrorist attacks. The two men were walking down Fifth Avenue when someone approached them and asked, ``Where's John McClane when you need him?''

So, Willis, thoughtful, well-spoken and a doting father of three, has reconsidered his stance. He believes that people want movie heroes and that they sometimes need a two-hour diversion from everyday life. So don't be surprised if ``Tears'' is the beginning of a second wave of Willis action films, culminating with, yes, ``Die Hard 4.''

``If I can find things that are interesting and tell good stories, why not?'' Willis says. ``The stories are out there waiting to be told. There are guys out there giving their lives for our country, guys we never hear about. I'm more than interested in making movies about men and women who fight for our freedoms. Bring 'em on.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) TAKING ACTION

Bruce Willis wants to play a hero for the times in `Tears of the Sun'

(2) no caption (scene from ``Tears of the Sun'')

(3) Director Antoine Fuqua on his African extras

(4) Bruce Willis with co-star Monica Bellucci