Courage Under Fire is a “sentimental and effective” film with the Gulf War as the background. According to me, for a movie to receive a rating of 5/5 it should have “good acting”, should be “well directed” and should have a “solid story”. Courage Under Fire scores highly on all these three counts and is easily one of the best movies of 1996.
The movie is directed by Edward Zwick and has a running time of just under two hours.
The Plot:
The story can be summed up by these three words – Guilt, Responsibility and Absolute Truth.
Guilt:
Lt.Col. Nat Serling (Denzel Washington) was commanding tank forces of T-54’s at Al Bathra during the Gulf War. Some enemy tanks had infiltrated his tank formation and he ordered all his tanks to switch on their headlights – one tank fails to follow his instruction and assuming it to be an enemy tank, Nat orders it to be fired. He ends up killing his own men and one of his best friends. The Army downplays this error – calls it “friendly fire” and rewards the dead men – but deep inside Nat is burning with guilt. He becomes an alcoholic and his marriage is on the rocks.
Nat’s commanding officer – General Hershberg (Michael Moriarty) protects him and assigns him to some paper pushing tasks at the Pentagon. His assignment was to investigate the heroic exploits of Capt Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) who apparently in an act of bravery saved her men and was killed on the battlefield. In order to gain sympathy and support from the public, Congress was eager to hand over the Congressional Medal of Honor to her posthumously in a much publicized event at the White House and that would make Karen the first woman to receive such an honor for combat duty.
This investigation of Karen’s exploits on the battlefield become the crux of the movie and are shown as flashbacks.
Responsibility:
A routine helicopter goes down and comes under heavy enemy artillery. The fallen soldiers suddenly spot another helicopter (a medi-vac) piloted by Meg Ryan approaching them and witness how they keep the enemy at bay and succeed in blasting the enemy tank with a case of spare fuel. In the process Meg’s helicopter comes under fire and gets grounded.
Meg’s co-pilot Rady is badly injured. Her crew consists of Ilario (Matt Damon), Monfriez (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Altameyer.
Meg’s orders are to remain on the ground till dawn and wait for the rescue bombers who would start looking for them at day-break – her logic of not moving during the night was because of the condition of Rady and also she did not want to jeopardize the lives of her men as they had no idea where the enemy was. All were well aware that the enemy is lurking around them and may kill them during the night.
Several incidents happen during the night and each one is brought to light through the eyes of the survivors – Ilario, Altameyer and Monfriez. There are several inconsistencies in the stories and Nat wants to get at the absolute truth.
The army was eager to award the medal and pressurizes Nat to deliver a report. A guilty Nat tries to fight the establishment only to see himself being removed from the investigation.
Absolute Truth:
What kind of a person was Captain Karen. Based on Nat’s investigation,
Ilario says “’’the heavier the pressure, the calmer she got.’’
Monfriez says “She was afraid... She was a coward. That’s the bottom line...’’
With the help of a Washington Post reporter – Scott Glenn – Nat uncovers the truth and in doing so is able to really understand the meaning of courage and to a certain extent comes to terms with his guilt.
The Performances:
# Denzel Washington as Lt. Col. Nathaniel Serling. One of his best performances to date. His guilt and his burning desire to get at the truth were well enacted.
# Meg Ryan as Capt. Karen Walden. A creditable performance since she was only shown in flashback. Her character exhibited grit and determination and she had to succeed in a man’s world and she had willingly accepted the challenge.
# Lou Diamond Phillips as Monfriez. One of Meg’s crew members. Had dreams about becoming a professional boxer – an intense performance.
# Matt Damon as Ilario. Another solid performance from Matt. What impressed me was his physical make up when he becomes a total drug addict – very life like.
# Seth Gilliam as Altameyer. An OK performance.
# Regina Taylor as Meredith - the wife of Nat. She gave a silent performance – spoke mostly though her eyes and was the pillar of moral support for Nat.
The most touching scenes:
According to me there were two:
# When the congressional medal of honor is awarded to the daughter of Meg Ryan. It is worth dying for your country – a very patriotic moment.
# Nat confesses to the parents of his best friend – confesses to killing their dear son at Al Bathra. The father says “ Even though I forgive you, you have to live with it for the rest of your life”. A truly sentimental and effective moment.
I would rate this 5 / 5. If you get the chance to watch it, please don’t miss it.
Happy viewing.