Courage Under Fire

7/4/19961h 56m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ A medal for honor. A search for justice. A battle for truth. ~

Overview:

A US Army officer, who made a "friendly fire" mistake that was covered up, has been reassigned to a desk job. He is tasked to investigate a female chopper commander's worthiness to be awarded the Medal of Honor. At first all seems in order. But then he begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses...

Director:

Edward Zwick

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$46,000,000.00

Revenue:

$100,900,000.00

Key words:

gulf war
war veteran
politics
praise
pilot
rescue mission
dead soldier
tank
us army
medal
battlefield
behind enemy lines
military
army life

Cast

Denzel Washington

~ as ~

Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling

Meg Ryan

~ as ~

Captain Karen Emma Walden

Lou Diamond Phillips

~ as ~

Staff Sergeant John Monfriez

Michael Moriarty

~ as ~

Brigadier General Hershberg

Matt Damon

~ as ~

Ilario

Bronson Pinchot

~ as ~

Bruno

Seth Gilliam

~ as ~

Stephen Altameyer

Regina Taylor

~ as ~

Meredith Serling

Zeljko Ivanek

~ as ~

Banacek

Scott Glenn

~ as ~

Gartner

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
6
What makes this film stand out (a little) is the intimate style of photography. The POV camerawork gives us a proximity to the story and characters that we rarely see. Sadly, though, the story itself is a little bit thin. Denzel Washington is tasked with investigating the worthiness of a deceased helicopter pilot during the Gulf war to receive the medal of honor. Assuming it would be a routine ratification, he interviews her crew only to find discrepancies and inconstancies that cast a shadow over the whole procedure. Had this just been a routine wartime tale, then it might have been ok - but the fact that it is based around a real wartime scenario, and married together with that sickly trumpet-based pseudo-military score and an annoyingly "Semper Fi" sort of mentality, the whole thing just sinks down into a mire of absurdity and sentimentality. Neither Denzel Washington nor Meg Ryan really have the weight to give this film any bite, oomph - or, for that matter, plausibility. Matt Damon makes some impact but I couldn't quite decide whether that was because he was good, or because it was interesting to see him before stardom set it in - but either way, this is pretty much devoid of action, and the dialogue could have been written by the US Army recruitment office. They all look great in their uniforms, though!