Jim Webb wrote the screenplay for a Samuel L. Jackson movie

(Image credit: Movieclips Trailer Vault/Youtube)

published 15 October 2015

Democratic presidential hopeful Jim Webb, who many found out about for the first time when he showed up at the debate on Tuesday evening, has plenty of impressive credentials under his belt. He was a senator from Virginia, the secretary of the Navy, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, counsel for the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and, as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam, he killed "one man and maybe more," according to The Daily Beast. Webb has another side, too, however — he's won an Emmy Award for journalism, written 10 books, and oh, remember that movie, Rules of Engagement, from 2000? He wrote that, too.

From Roger Ebert's two-and-a-half star review:

The film centers on a relationship forged throughout the adult lifetimes of two Marine colonels, Hays Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) and Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson). They fought side by side in Vietnam, where Childers saved Hodges' life by shooting an unarmed POW. That's against the rules of war but understandable, in this story anyway, under the specific circumstances. Certainly Hodges is not complaining. [RogerEbert.com]

Ebert wrapped up his review by saying that, "The fundamental problem with Rules of Engagement, I suspect, is that the filmmakers never clearly defined exactly what they believed about the issues they raised." He was being, perhaps, a little generous: The film was met with mostly negative reviews and holds a cumulative score of 36 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said it was "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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