Rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard have a very dangerous job, risking their lives to save strangers in horrible conditions. I have known that the Coast Guard performed rescues at sea but I hadn’t really thought about what it would take to do that job. The new movie The Guardian showed some of the things rescue swimmers faced in their training and on the job. This happened to be the first movie I saw at the new stadium seating movie theater here in town.

Ben Randall was still a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard even though it wasn’t normal for people to stay in that position after they turned forty. After a rescue went wrong and Ben was the only survivor from his crew, his commander sent him to teach potential future rescue swimmers so he would have more time to recover emotionally. He was also trying to deal with problems with his wife Helen.

Jake Fischer was one of the students Ben would be training. Jake was a bit cocky, saying he was going to break all the records at the school. He was a very strong swimmer, perhaps the best to go through the school. He didn’t seem to get that it took more to make it as a rescue swimmer. Ben had a very different way of training the swimmers and he was flunking people out in a hurry. He went to extremes with some of his lessons, but he knew that as rescue swimmers his class would be facing extreme conditions. He was trying to better prepare his class for the real conditions they would face. Ben pushed hard to make them better.

The Guardian was fairly predictable because the plot wasn’t the most original. The plot was straightforward, focused mostly on Ben teaching the class. There were a few things that happened that I didn’t expect, but nothing was really shocking or surprising. I was still entertained, though some people might not like that the movie was as predictable as it was. The movie did follow a formula that has been used in several other movies with a veteran in a dangerous occupation training someone much younger. I saw one event coming several minutes ahead of time, and actually I sort of suspected something like it would happen even before I saw the movie. I really wish I had been wrong about that.

A lot of the movie was devoted to showing the training that potential rescue swimmers went through. I thought the scenes showing the training worked very well, showing just how difficult it is to become a rescue swimmer. I thought those scenes were interesting since I really had no idea what people would go through to become rescue swimmers. Being a good, strong swimmer is certainly important for the job, but there is more to it than that. Ben was pushing his students hard to try to get them to fully understand everything that they would face. There was a little bit of conflict with one other instructor in particular over Ben’s training methods. I did wonder if any of the other instructors had actually worked as rescue swimmers. There was a training montage at one point that showed bits of the different things the class went through. The footage for that part was grainy, shaky, and the color was strange like it was filmed on a hand-held camera. I’m not sure why that was done and it seemed odd.

A few actual rescues were shown at different times in The Guardian. That did add a little bit of action and even a small amount of suspense. The scenes were well done and looked believable. Some of the shots looked very impressive. I think CGI was used in some of the scenes that took place on the ocean. The boats in some of the shots might have been added with CGI as well. I did think the effects were well done and blended in well with what was live action. To me, it did look like the boats and swimmers were really in the ocean during storms. I’ve never been anywhere near the ocean during a horrible storm, so I could be wrong.

There were a few little bits of humor added in a few scenes and helped to lighten the mood temporarily. Anyone that is in the mood for a funny movie need to pick something else. The Guardian was a very serious movie overall. The movie really seemed to be paying tribute to the rescue swimmers of the Coast Guard. The people who choose to become rescue swimmers are heroes. They willingly risk their lives on a regular basis to rescue strangers. They go out in horrible weather conditions when no one else will. They have to make horrible decisions at times when there is no way that everyone can be saved. They have to decide who lives and who dies and then they have to be able to live with the fact that they were unable to save everyone. There is no way that I would want to have to make decisions like that. During once scene, the work that the Coast Guard did after Hurricane Katrina was briefly mentioned. There were some emotional moments, something else I thought would happen. I did think one thing in particular was sad, though it didn’t effect me as strongly as similar things in other movies have.

Ben and Jake were the main characters and the only ones who were really developed at all. Most of the other characters were just sort of there, not adding much to the overall movie. Billy Hodge was the only other student that really received any sort of development, however minor it was. The rest of the students really blended into the background and seemed interchangeable. Ben was a legend among rescue swimmers, being responsible rescuing a lot of people. He was getting older and he didn’t want to switch to a desk job even after the horrible accident during a rescue. Ben was struggling to cope with being the only survivor. I’ve really never been a fan of Kevin Costner, though I have seen and enjoyed some of his movies. I did think he gave a good performance in this movie, one of the best of his career probably. I liked his character much more than I did the one he played in Rumor Has It. Sela Ward was only in a few scenes as Ben’s wife Helen and she really didn’t have much to do.

Jake was very cocky when he arrived to start training. For a while he seemed more interested in breaking records than learning everything that was really needed to successfully save people. He was dealing with his own demons, something he kept to himself. Ashton Kutcher is probably best known as Kelso on That 70's Show. That character was an idiot, but he was entertaining to watch. Kutcher has made some silly movies, including a small part in Cheaper by the Dozen, as well as trying a few more serious parts. This was probably his most serious part and I think he handled it well. Emily Thomas was a teacher that Jake started to date while going through training. Clancy Brown turned up as Captain William Hadley, Ben’s commander, in a few scenes. None of the other instructors or members of the Coast Guard were developed.

Main Cast

Clancy Brown - Captain William Hadley
Kevin Costner - Ben Randall
Brain Geraghty - Billy Hodge
John Heard - Captain Frank Larson
Ashton Kutcher - Jake Fischer
Neil McDonough - Jack Skinner
Melissa Sagemiller - Emily Thomas
Sela Ward - Helen

Andrew Davis - Director

The Guardian was an entertaining movie that is worth seeing even though it did have a few small problems. The movie could be too predictable for some viewers. Fans of Kevin Costner or Ashton Kutcher may also like the movie.



Recommended: Yes