The Guardian

Beautiful yet very sad movie in the end! I could watch this over and over again!

Very enjoyable and entertaining. Good story. Well acted. I would recommend.

Even though The Guardian was panned by most of the major critics when it came out, I decided to trust the reviews on Amazon.com this time around. Besides, I'm from the coast of North Carolina and half of my relatives served in the Coast Guard, while the other half served in the Marine Corp. This is a movie I needed to see. The Guardian is the first film ever done about the United States Coast Guard, especially its courageous Rescue Swimmers. As Kevin Costner says in the movie, "No one ever thinks about the Coast Guard, until they're needed." If you live on the ocean, or anywhere near the ocean, you're use to seeing Coast Guard boats on a regular basis. What most of the public isn't aware of are the young men and women who repeatedly jump into raging waves during the middle of a storm to rescue people who didn't have the good sense to stay on shore that night. Or even more important, these are the people who went into New Orleans to save the victims of Hurricane Katrina. These are the best of the best, and they put their lives on the line time and time again so "that others might live." This is the famous motto of the Coast Guard, and the theme of The Guardian.Having been compared to the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman, Andrew Davis' The Guardian stars Kevin Costner as the heroic Ben Randall, who's now in his forties and recovering from the tragic deaths of everyone in his crew and the breakup of his marriage to the beautiful Sela Ward. Randall, having saved more people than any other Rescue Swimmer, is given the choice of resigning his position as Senior Chief, or training the raw recruits who seek to become the elite of the Coast Guard. Ashton Kutcher plays the young cocky recruit, Jake Fischer, who wants to break all of Randall's records. Naturally, both men will knock heads with each other during the eighteen weeks of training, until they both begin to realize just how much they have in common. Both of the men has each suffered a great tragedy and the bonding with each other will eventually lead them to a sense of redemption. During the course of the film, Jake also falls in love with a lovely schoolteacher who's played by Melissa Sagemiller. I wish I'd had her as a teacher when I was in school! Together, they seem like a younger version of Ben Randall and his wife. Once the training is finally over, Jake will have to face the reality of what it means to put your life on the line for complete strangers, while Ben has to find out if he still has what it takes to be a Rescue Swimmer.Though the movie is almost two-and-a-half hours long, it seemed more like ninety minutes. From the opening moments of the film to its powerful, tear-filled ending, I was caught up in the characters and their trials and tribulations. I was never bored. Like a lot of viewers, I was able to guess most of what was going to happen, but this never took away from my enjoyment of the film. I will admit to being a little surprised at the ending. I was expecting something else. I'm glad everyone involved with the movie decided to take a chance and go with it, even though an alternate ending had been shot. This certainly made for a more gut-wrenching experience than the typical ending that most moviegoers are familiar with. I also felt that all the performances were quite strong, even the smaller roles played by John Heard, Clancy Brown, Sela Ward, and Neal McDonough. There was one particular scene in the movie that got me laughing. It's when Kevin Costner's character takes Ashton Kutcher back into the same Navy bar where Kutcher was just beat up. One of the men who pounded on Kutcher walks arrogantly up to the bar and wants to know if Costner is Kutcher's dad. It's hard to believe that so much time has now passed that Costner is looked upon as the "father" figure in today's films. Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves, and The Bodyguard all seem like they were done yesterday. I guess we're all getting old. I have to also say that I'm not much of an "Ashton Kutcher" fan, but this movie won me over. I was impressed with how he held his own with Costner. This is a young man who's on his way to becoming a very, very good actor. The Guardian is a well-made, entertaining film that takes a close look at the men and women you can count on to be there when they're needed--the Rescue Swimmers of the United States Coast Guard. The DVD has about twenty-five minutes of extras, including a look at the real Rescue Swimmers, the making of The Guardian, and the alternate ending that was shot, but fortunately was never used. Hoo-ahh!

Anything with Costner is a great one.

Great movie a little expensive should have just bought at Walmart for five bucks but it is a good movie

I liked it

Good actors

This shows true character in very flawed humans. We are not perfect, but some are really truly heroic.

Extraordinaria historia!! El producto llegó sin contratiempos, antes de lo estimado.

Great film then any film with Kevin Costner is is brilliant

Todo perfecto

Il film non è male e c'è pure un bel pacchetto di extra. Il video, per un film del 2006, tutto sommato è accettabile. Peccato per i sottotitoli degli extra che sono solo in italiano e incompleti nella traduzione.

Langues Anglais,Spanish,polish, Hebrew, Greek, Bulgarian, Russian etc...Mais où est le FRANÇAIS ??IDEM pour la Saison 4 de Mr SELFRIDGE.