Guest Blogger: Danh V2

Military action movies are action orientated; very few are characters driven such as Saving Private Ryan or The Guardian. The guardian in particular is less of an action movie, but rather a drama that focus on the emotions and self-development of the main characters. The Guardian starts out with a Coast Guard rescue mission gone wrong, as the sole survivor, Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) has to develop and train the next generations of rescue swimmers and hope that one will replace him. Jake Fisher (Ashston Kutcher), a hot shot swimming champ in high school is one of the candidates that are lucky enough to be trained by Randall. Fisher thinks he’s the best, but Randall has many challenges in store for the young and naïve candidate. Ashton Kutcher’s role as Jake Fisher was anything but normal; he embedded himself into the character without any flaws. From the first point to the last, viewers could see Jake Fisher evolves from a hot head person into a quite professional who put others before himself. As for Ben Randall, played by Kevin Costner, he sees training Fisher as a way to redeem himself for what he has lost; Randall is the opposite of Fisher in terms of character development, he degrades his personalities as the plot goes on. One of the main themes of The Guardian is to never hang on to anything too tight for you will inevitably lose it, and when that day comes, it will be a great shock to you. I do agree with this theme, because that is the reality of life, people and objects come and go, otherwise, there would be no reason for living. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie did and o.k. job, nothing more and nothing less. I somewhat agrees with this critic’s statement, because the movie wasn’t extraordinary like Saving Private Ryan but it has its moments. Overall, this is a must see if you want to know more about the Coast Guard, or if you are interested in the lesson it teaches.