Two Thumbs Up for The Guardian

The Guardian movie poster The U.S. Coast Guard has always gotten short shrift in the movies, but The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher in the lead roles, makes up for that big time. The Guardian opened nationally last night and we had a small Guardian party. We had a personal interest in the movie, not only because Coast Guard rescue swimmers are my heroes, but also because a particular one that we have worked with over the years on various equipment evaluations was technical advisor from the Coast Guard and ended up being given a role in the movie. Master Chief Joseph “Butch” Flythe did us and the Coast Guard proud.

Hollywood will have its way, no matter how hard technical advisors work, but by and large none of the technical faux pas do anything to detract from the overall result. This is a character driven script, but with plenty of action and some great marine rescue scenes. Most importantly, it does a great job of capturing the intensity and bravery and heart that defines every rescue swimmer I’ve ever met, or the entire Coast Guard for that matter.

Yes, there’s no doubt that this movie makes use of lots of tired clichés and at times you can guess what’s coming next, but the actors give solid performances that carry it through any of these potential potholes. While The Guardian has received mixed reviews from the professional reviewers (and what the heck do they know anyway?), it gets Two Thumbs Up from me.

Scene from The Guardian with Kevin Costner If you’re reading this blog, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this movie, and it’ll give you a good deal of respect for a service and a bunch of extraordinary individuals who put their lives on the line day in and day out to save innocent lives, not a few of which the gene pool could likely do better without. But, they don’t judge. They just go out when no sane person would and pull your butt out of the water to save you.