Courage Under Fire (1996)

Courage Under Fire (1996) This is a war film about an Army officer, plagued about a deadly mistake he made, who investigates a female soldier's worthiness for the Medal of Honor. It stars Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. The film received mostly positive reviews and earned a generally favorable response. The investigation turns up some disparities that requires our lead character to not only question the female soldier's worthiness, but also his own. It examines the truth the public gets vs. the actual truth. This is a quality film that allows its audience, not only to figure out what really took place, but also whether or not it should come out at all.

Fmovies: At the beginning of the film, someone makes a reference to Meg Ryan's character as being "butch". I immediately thought, "Yeah right. Meg Ryan, butch?" Well, I was actually quite surprised with her performance, given the fact that she is a light romantic screen actress. Plus, she was once considered one of America's sweethearts, so it's hard to picture her in a role like this.

Denzel Washington, a Colonol in the Army, is investigating the death of an American soldier who died in the field, during the Iraqi war. Whether she deserves the medal of honor, which she has been nominated for, is the reason for the investigation. There are surviving members of her crew, and each one has a different version of the story, and what really happened the morning of her death.

The first twenty minutes of the film are slow, and a bit hard to pay attention to (or maybe that's just me and military movies), but once you get into the story, it picks up quite a bit, and becomes very interesting and worth the watch. I will probably never see this movie again, but it was entertaining enough that I was able to sit through the whole thing without being frustrated from boredom.

Denzel Washington was good, but nothing special. I suppose it might have been his character, given the fact that it was a pretty bland role. Lou Diamond Phillipes was probably the best actor in the whole film, and blew me away with his performance. I'm surprised he hasn't done as much since this film came out.

Again, Meg Ryan was good in this, but I wouldn't have chosen her for this part. I would have gone with someone a little more masculine to fill her character's shoes, perhaps someone like Jodie Foster.

It was a good drama, and if you want to see a really young and good looking Matt Damon, this is your chance. Other than that though, it's not worth that much. It's better than most action movies, but then again, there's not really that much action as there is story telling, which I enjoyed the most out of the whole film.

After suffering a tragic incident during the 1991 gulf war Colonel Serling is asked to look into the case of Captain Walden a female helicopter pilot nominated for America`s highest decoration The Medal Of Honor

COURAGE UNDER FIRE is directed by Ed Zwick a director who tries so hard to direct an epic movie that he loses all focus for narrative . GLORY suffered from this to a certain extent as did his later movie THE SIEGE . LEGENDS OF THE FALL on the other hand collapsed under its own weight of sub stories that it left this viewer wondering what on earth was the main story . COURAGE UNDER FIRE could have suffered the same fate and I was suspicous as to where the story might have been heading . A tragic friendly fire incident features as does the traumatic and guilt ridden aftermath , a nosey journalist appears , then the story switches to the helicopter heroine . Should females serve on the front line ? Will she get the honour simply because she`s a woman ? With so many potential storylines for the film to follow the movie then decides to become centered around what actually happened to Captain Walden . I`m actually glad it became a simple " Whodunnit " plot because LEGENDS OF THE FALL SET IN THE DESERT isn`t my idea of a good movie

There`s only two things director Zwick should be criticised for , in fact one of them isn`t even his fault and that is the battle scene where the Iraqis surround the crashed helicopter , having watched BLACK HAWK DOWN several times I came to the conclusion the most awesome part of that movie is where the two Delta snipers Shughart and Gordon bravely but vainly try to stem the Somali hordes closing in on the Durrant crash site . Ironically this incident inspired the producers to make COURAGE UNDER FIRE but the battle scenes are very much weaker in comparison to Scott`s later movie despite being very similar , but let me repeat I saw COURAGE UNDER FIRE after seeing BLACK HAWK DOWN and most war movies would pale beside Ridley Scott`s action masterwork . The one thing Zwick should be blamed for is casting Meg Ryan . On screen the character of Walden is described as " Butch " and whatever you want to say about Meg Ryan " butch " is not an accurate adjective . Lyndie England now she is butch ...

As for the other aspects of the movie it`s cast well enough . Denzil Washington plays his usual good guy very well while a then fairly unknown Matt Damon is almost unrecognisable . Perhaps the most refreshing thing about COURAGE UNDER FIRE is that it`s apolitical which makes a nice change from Vietnam where we get polemical movies like THE GREEN BERETS and WE WERE SOLDIERS on one hand and PLATOON and APOCALYPSE NOW on the other . Wait till Hollywood starts making movies about Gulf War 2 , boy are we going to be getting some opinions on that war

Courage Under Fire fmovies. Nat Serling returns from the Gulf war having been involved in a friendly fire incident. Even though he is cleared, he still carries the guilt but is looked after by the army and helped into a comfortable job in the Pentagon. He is assigned to assess the nomination of Captain Karen Walden for the medal of honour – an seemingly open and shut case that everyone wants to be passed for the public relations opportunity of awarding a woman captain the posthumous medal. However, when Serling starts to investigate he finds some minor differences in the stories and the more he pushes the survivors the more the story starts to fall apart. Despite the pressure from his superiors, Serling continues to dig for the truth.

Looking back at this film now it is perhaps a little frustrating how little it seems to critically analysis the issues behind war and politics and instead just plays it as a straight thriller with the Gulf only serving as a background and not as subtext. With this aspect put to one side the film just about manages to work as a thriller but not a particularly good one. The plot is very much 'he said, she said' stuff and it is not as dramatic as it would like to think it is. The film tries to inject pace into it with a series of extreme actions by the characters and the excitement of the battle sequences but really it doesn't amount to a terrible lot. The subplot over Serling's incident never really feels relevant and was either tacked on or badly handled to the point that it seemed tacked on. Either way the plot is not as involving as it really should have been – it does OK enough to make it worth watching once but it's no great shakes.

The cast is impressive though and contains many stars as well as faces that have become a lot more famous since this. Washington is troubled and interesting, even if he has to occasionally switch on the worry on request. He is a good leading man and has good presence; his delivery goes part of the way to helping inject a bit of urgency into some of the scenes in this rather talky film. Ryan was a strange choice but I suppose she was desperate to have something to show her range. While it is easy to dismiss her performance, she is OK but it would have been a lot better if her performance had changed more that it did between the few accounts – but I guess her range is not as wide as she would like to think it is. Outside of these two the main players are those in Walden's crew; Damon looks very young and does OK, Phillips is physically impressive but his character is difficult to totally swallow and Gilliam is a lot more understated than he was in Oz. The rest of the cast is populated by a large number of well-known faces including Taylor, Ivanek, Pinchot, Astin, Glenn, Thomas, McGill, Hall and Jenkins. Few of them have anything to do but their presence was rarely a distraction to me although I can imagine some viewers might be put off by the 'where do I know him from' factor.

Overall this is an average drama that is talky and relies on the actors to try and inject into a plot that is really just about the different characters trying to cover their own backs. The cast are mostly good but Ryan's reach exceeds her grasp and they are mostly let down by average material. Worth a watch once for what it is but I can't imagine too many viewers will be returning for a second look.

Courage Under Fire is a movie that will stay with me for a while. Denzel Washington continues to be one of the finest actors today and proves it in this movie. The premise was interesting and was entertaining. I was disappointed with Meg Ryan's performance. I usually like her but she got annoying with her constant shouting. Yet that didn't keep the movie down. It was extremely dramatic and my two favorite scenes are the scene with Lou Diamond Phillips in the car and when it shows what really happened. A great film and terrific acting by Denzel Washington.

I don't care about the petty "goofs" or parts of the story that other people point out- this movie means a lot to me as a disabled veteran with PTSD. This movie is about many things, but to me, the story is about how Col Sterling is trying to manage his survivor guilt and PTSD from his incident on one hand, and deal with his task to validate the medal for his General, his wife, his kids, etc. on the other. He resorts to booze (like we all do) to try to cope. That's what this movie is really about: how one guy is trying to come to grips with PTSD, which I can tell you first-hand is a challenge that I face every minute of everyday. And seeing this movie helps heal me. It reminds me that I too lost a promising career in the Navy, lost my marriage, lost my kids, and lost myself in the abyss of PTSD and alcoholism before I got help. That's the only negative I have on this movie- we don't see if Col Sterling got help. Otherwise, this movie has helped heal me in ways that no other movie I've ever seen has.