COURAGE UNDER FIRE
A film review by Michael Redman
Copyright 1996 Michael Redman
**1/2 (out of ****)
Denzel Washington is Lt. Col. Nat Sterling, a tank commander during the Gulf War who accidentally fires on one of his own tanks, killing a good friend. After the war, Sterling is driven to alcoholism and psychological self-destruction by the guilt. He's also dealing with his investigation into whether Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), a chopper pilot, should be awarded the Medal Of Honor posthumously.
Sterling's condition isn't helped by the fact that the rescue mission Walden lead is shrouded in mystery. Every witness that he interviews has a different version of the story. With each interview, the war is replayed over and over to his horror. He pours himself into the puzzle in order to dull his own pain, but it doesn't work and his relationships with his wife and children drift further away.
This is the first war movie from the conflict in the Gulf and it does a credible job of the battle scenes: dramatic and spectacular guns and explosions juxtaposed with frightened and panicked soldiers trying to survive.
The story of the investigation is intriguing. For some reason, everyone is lying about what happened. It's unclear as to if Walden was a hero or a coward. As each version of the event is played, and each somewhat different from the one before, the truth becomes more muddied and yet adds one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
Washington turns in his usual fine performance. Ryan is surprisingly convincing in a dramatic role, a stretch from her usual romantic comedy parts. Most of the rest of the cast is excellent, especially Scott Glenn as the "Washington Post" reporter. An exception is mission member Lou Diamond Phillips who turns in a good performance but seems like he's in a different movie.
That's the problem with too much of the film. Often the characters don't seem as connected as you would expect them to be. Sterling and his wife were supposedly once very close but now distanced, but there's not much evidence of that closeness ever having existed. His interaction with his commanding officer and friend is devoid of emotion.
The film has a difficult time deciding what it is about. The two main plots--Walden's story and Sterling's story--would each have been fodder for a film. Both in the same is a bit too much.
Great acting and a good tale, but with a few too many flaws to take this movie where it could have gone.
[This originally appeared in "The Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana, 8/2/96. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com]
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