COURAGE UNDER FIRE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Fox)
Directed by Edward Zwick
Written by Patrick Sheane Duncan
Cast Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips,
Michael Moriarty, Matt Damon, Scott Glenn
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language, gore, and combat violence)
Running Time 117 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(12JUL96)
==
Substance has slammed into the summer season with the landfall of COURAGE UNDER FIRE, an imposing and entirely affecting military drama that reteams Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington with his glorious GLORY director Edward Zwick. This time we're witness to a modern conflict, as the movie opens on a friendly-fire incident during the Gulf War. Commanding a compliment of armored vehicles, Lieutenant Colonel Nat Serling (Washington) gives the order to fire on what is thought to be an enemy target. His men die, instead. Six months after the end of the war, Serling is working on his own death-- a slow suicide via Scotch-- when he is assigned to investigate the approval of a posthumous Medal of Honor for a helicopter pilot (a gritty Meg Ryan) who died in the war. A discrepancy in the surviving accounts piques Serling's interest and, soon, he begins uncovering the truth about many things, including his own suffering state.
COURAGE UNDER FIRE carries surprising emotional weight, even as it all too often relies on familiar dramatic devices. You may wince at such seeming cliches as Serling grasping for the whispered words of a dying man lying on a hospital bed. Or his clandestine meeting with a newspaper reporter (Scott Glenn) complete with a trench coat, sun- glasses, and, amusingly, a Redskins cap. The too-polished plot is as potentially distracting as the tightrope casting (Ryan, with a slurred Southern accent; Lou Diamond Phillips as a buffed and tough solider; Bronson Pinchot as a White House spin doctor). Credit a couple of rock-solid performances (including Washington and Michael Moriarty as the commanding officer) and a no-nonsense approach by Zwick and screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan (MR. HOLLAND'S ANUS, NICK OF TIME). Their frank presentation of the subject matter and a unflinching attention to detail help drive home the point that the consequences of war are hell. Go and have a good cry.
Grade: A-
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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