The Guardian

- When lives are on the line, sacrifice everything. So Others May Live.

A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.

Actors:

Kevin Costner

Ashton Kutcher

Sela Ward

Melissa Sagemiller

Clancy Brown

Other info:

Director: Andrew Davis           

Producer (s): Armyan Bernstein, Zanne Devine

Running time: 2h 19min

Age rating: PG-13

Genre:              Adventure, Drama            

Release date: 29 September 2006

Budget: $70,000,000+-

Box Office: $94,973,540

IMDb rating: 6,9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 37%

Our Experience

Rating:        8/10

I cry every single time I watch it. It is an excellent watch, and excellently done. They used real Coast Guard employees in the movie and to consult, so a lot of the facts are true. The story itself is amazing, and it so clearly and unabashedly depicts the sacrifices these people choose to make. Character growth are shown with great realism. My heart just can't take the sheer magnitude of emotions - even after seeing it more than probably 10 times by now, it still catches me.

However, my kids do not feel the same and I have met other adults who also don't share the sentiment with the concepts of the movie. For them it is boring drama, despite the action sequences.

Audience Suggestion & Guidance

Age: All, but with parental guidance

Swearing:   Some, but not much

Profanity:   A little

Violence:   A little, mostly by the sea and the circumstances on the stormy ocean

Thinking/Twist factor: 8/10

Blood & Gore:   None

Scary factor:   3/10

Nudity:   None (only naked chests of men)

Sex:   Implied, consensual

Synopsis:

Senior Chief Petty Officer Ben Randall is the top rescue swimmer at the United States Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technician (AST) program, but the long hours have destroyed his marriage. When on a rescue, Ben loses his team in a HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter crash at sea. While waiting in a survival raft, his best friend, Chief Petty Officer Carl Billings, dies. Shaken by survivor guilt, Ben is transferred to become an instructor at the Coast Guard AST training school in Louisiana, where he develops a legendary reputation among the students for his high number of rescues. One student is hot-shot candidate Jake Fischer, a top high school competitive swimmer who rejected scholarships to every Ivy League college to enlist in the Coast Guard. During training, Jake meets local school teacher, Emily Thomas, and they begin a casual relationship.

Read the full synopsis here: The Guardian