The Guardian is a love letter to the Coast Guard. Its story of the training academy and their daring rescues could only glorify the heroes. The film's DVD even includes a spotlight on the real heroes who inspired the film.
Interview: Coast Guard on The Guardian
"I always felt that it was important to make reference to the fact that these are real people," said director Andrew Davis. "And I was able to do that in the end credits of the movie, to visualize the history of the swimmers and the coast guard. But yeah, it was important to me because this is what was so inspirational. It was the basis of the whole movie was looking at real footage, real people, understanding what they went through and Ron Brinkerhoff the writer met these guys early on in the process. When I met them, I said, 'You've got to be in the movie." I can't get an actor to do what you guys do in terms of the finesse and the way they just sort of approach certain things. It rubbed off on Ashton and Kevin and all the other actors."
Davis got glowing reviews from those heroes. "They loved it. What can I tell you? I's their life. They were very impressed with how hard we worked to make it honest and real, from the waves tank to the way we trained to how we cast the kids in the class who were some of them were Olympic swimmers, a lot of them were triathletes to how hard Kevin and Ashton, especially Ashton worked getting in shape. So they were very impressed with it and I think that I haven't heard anybody in the coast guard who knows anything about what these guys do has anything to say but glowing things about it. Which is what was the most important thing to me, these guys as they really are, and gals."
With all the stormy action of coast guard rescue missions, it's a wonder Hollywood took so long to gravitate towards this story. "Well, people had been doing stories about people killing people. To me it was important to do a story about people saving people. The military, Top Gun, they're learning how to blow the blank out of people's villages and lives and planes. There's only 270 of them and they only work in bases near big storms where there are helicopters. So they're sort of spread out on the edges of our world or where there are big storms. Some people don't like to live in those areas."
While the film honors the sacrifices these heroes make to save lives, it is still a piece of entertainment. "I think you have to invest yourself in the people, care about the people and then the movie will work if you care about what's going on in their story, their journey. And trying to take people someplace they normally couldn't go on their own which this film certainly does. It allows you to experience something in the comfort of the theater that lets you feel empathy and sympathy for what their journey is but you feel safe. That's the common reaction. 'My wife was grabbing my pants leg and I got scratches from it.' Those comments only work if you think that it's a real situation and people are invested in what's happening."
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