Year:
1996
Studio:
Fox 2000 Pictures
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
2/5
Courage Under Fire is a movie set just after the first Gulf War,
dealing with events that happened during the Gulf War. It's the story
of two soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel
Washington) and Captain Karen Emma Walden (Meg Ryan), though they
essentially never meet. Colonel Serling is a tank commander who is
dealing with his own demons from a friendly fire incident wherein he
accidently killed his best friend. He's starting to break down and has
been transferred to the Medals Commission, which investigates soldiers
who have been recommended for medals.
And so he is assigned the case of Captain Walden, who is recommended
for a posthumous Medal of Honor. Captain Walden would be the first
woman decorated in combat. But as Serling investigates the incident, he
comes up with some discrepancies and as he digs deeper he knows that
there is a great secret being hidden by the crew of Captain Walden's
helicopter.
This is a war movie but it's more focused on the human side. It's
interesting to see how the incident and its aftereffects have affected
the survivors. We have Rady (Tim Guinee) the copilot, Ilario (Matt
Damon) the medic, Altmeyer (Seth Gilliam) who I assumed was the
cargomaster, and Monfriez (Lou Diamond Phillips) the gunner. Each has a
different version of the events and so we see the same events told
through the different viewpoints.
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Denzel
Washington does his usual excellent acting. Meg Ryan does not play a
girl-next-door-romantic-interest character. She plays a tough warrior
who keeps her men together in a difficult situation. Matt Damon is
especially scary. Apparently he lost 30 pounds for the post-war/today
scenes and he looks gaunt and a bit sickly, as the character is
supposed to be. That's dedication.
The DVD has director's commentary by Edward Zwick. I didn't
particularly like it since Zwick doesn't say much and what he says is
not really insightful or new. I guess I'm getting jaded after listening
to so many commentary tracks. On the DVD there is also a 6-minute
promotional featurette for the movie.
I liked the movie. It has a couple of battle scenes but it's really a
movie about army life and it's a mystery. Acting is good, effects are
good, story is good. Recommended.
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