Wow! Such a good movie.

Sick Product of a Sick System

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I've seen this movie many years ago and remember i wasn't impressed by it. This was the movie that sunk Meg Ryan for me. I just saw it again and no, it's not worth remembering:I think its starts being lame with the story itself. Why on earth does it have to be a woman? If they wouldn't have put a woman in the center and obviously even worse, cast totally wrong, then the story could actually be interesting, elaborating on different views on the same event. But no, someone decided it had to be 'emancipated', then cast wrong, then pile up a load of unbelievable facts (like downing a tank with a fuel barrel from a helicopter under fire, yea right...) Also unbelievable is the fact that one guy can't stand the truth, even though he had no part in what happened, since he was injured. The other goes on drugs, even though he had no time to think about, let alone react to the lie the third one says. Which commits suicide all of a sudden, when urged to tell the truth, even though his life is going pretty well. And all this is investigated by someone that unknowingly killed a friend in combat, under fire, bla bla. The guy has a wife, kids, great job, status, money, house, and so on, but he can't cope with this accident?It's not all bad. You probably won't fall asleep, but when you find yourself rooting for the alleged bad guy, you know something is very wrong. Go night train go!

Courage Under Fire is a film about the 1991 Gulf War.It stars Denzel Washington,Meg Ryan,Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first great films to depict the 1991 Gulf War as it tells a story of a US Army officer, despondent about a deadly mistake he made, investigates a female chopper commander's worthiness for the Medal of Honor.The movie was directed by Edward Zwick.Courage Under Fire has Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling involved in a friendly fire incident in Al Bathra during the Gulf War. He was an M1 Abrams tank battalion commander who, during the nighttime confusion of Iraqi tanks infiltrating his unit's lines, gave the order to fire, destroying one of his own tanks and killing his friend Lieutenant Boylar. The details were covered up and Serling was reassigned to a desk job.Later, he is assigned to determine if Army Captain Karen Emma Walden should be the first woman to receive the Medal of Honor for valor in combat in the Gulf War posthumously. A Medevac Huey commander, she was sent to rescue the crew of a helicopter that had been shot down. Finding them under heavy fire from an Iraqi tank and infantry, she had her men drop an auxiliary fuel tank on the tank and ignited it with a flare gun. Shortly after, her helicopter was also hit and downed. The two crews were unable to join forces. The survivors were rescued the next day, but Walden had been killed in action.At first, everything seems to be straightforward, but Serling begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses. Walden's co-pilot, Warrant Officer One Rady, praises Walden's character and performance, but was hit and unconscious early on. Serling then sees Walden's medic, Specialist Ilario, who also praises Walden. Staff Sergeant Monfriez, however, tells Serling that Walden was a coward. The members of the other downed crew also mention that they heard the distinctive sound of an M16 being used in the firefight during the rescue around the other helicopter, but Walden's crew denies firing one during the rescue, as theirs was out of ammunition. When Serling visits Walden's crew chief, Sergeant Altameyer, who is dying of cancer in a hospital. Altameyer manages to get some words out, further confusing Serling, before self-medicating himself into unconsciousness.Under pressure from the White House and his commander, Brigadier General Hershberg, to wrap things up quickly, Serling leaks the story to newspaper reporter Tony Gartner to prevent another cover up. When Serling puts pressure on Monfriez, the man pulls a pistol at him, then commits suicide by driving his car into an oncoming train.After finding Ilario, Serling discovers that Monfriez wanted to escape under cover of darkness, which would have meant leaving Rady behind. Altameyer was ready to follow his lead and Ilario was wavering, but Walden refused to go along, resulting in an armed standoff with Monfriez. When an Iraqi infantryman appeared suddenly behind Monfriez, Walden fired at him. Mistakenly believing he was the target, Monfriez shot back and seriously wounded her. Walden, however, regained control of her men.The next morning, Walden stayed behind to cover their evacuation, firing the M16. Monfriez deliberately lied to the rescuers, telling them that she was dead so she would be left behind. Altameyer, injured and unable to say anything was ignored. Ilario remained silent. A-10 airplanes then napalmed the wreckage.Serling presents his final report to Hershberg. Walden's young daughter receives the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony. Later, Serling tearfully tells the Boylars the truth about the manner of their son's death. In the last moments of the film, it is shown that Walden had transported Boylar's body away from the battlefield.Courage Under Fire is definitely one outstanding film about the Gulf War.It tells an emotional and intriguing tale of a military officer who must review the merits of a fallen officer while confronting his own war demons that makes us feel for every character involved in the story.Also,the movie tells effectively the terrors brought about by war as well as its heartbreaking aftermath.It presents it treats with clarity and intelligence that truly makes it a brilliant film.Another good thing about it is the movie avoids the use of too much violence and swearing to present its story.The performances of the cast were great.Special mention must be given to Denzel Washington for he dominates a film with his quiet intensity and aura of introspection.Credit must also be given to Meg Ryan and Matt Damon,who tried his best to look realistic in his role by shedding many pounds to lose a lot of weight. Overall,Courage Under Fire is a movie that a viewer should not miss as it ranks up there with Platoon and Born On The Fourth Of July as outstanding war films.

I tried to watch Courage Under Fire, but I couldn't get past the completely amateurish opening sequence and the horribly miscast cast. Everything about this movie is bad, from the lighting, prop execution and poor use of body language to Edward Zwick's apparent inability to get his actors to perform to editor Steven Rosenblum's poor sense of timing and choice of takes. The execution of props, battle sequences and facial expressions would have been embarrassing in the 1980s. This sort of material has been done countless times before and since, and apart from third-rate, shoestring C-movies with unknown actors and obscure porn stars by wannabe directors, few other movies of the military genre were worse.

Okay so the main reason why I decided to see this movie is cause Edward Zwick directed it since I liked "The Last Samurai". Much better film than "Avatar" hands down. This is one of those feel good movies and that is fine, but it's just not that gripping or touching for that matter. The plot is basically about Nat Serling(Denzel Washington) who is Lt Col a Desert Storm veteran that is going through a guilt trip for accidentally killing one of the guy on his team. And while this is going on he is assigned a task to investigate if Capt Karen Walden(played by Meg Ryan) deserves a medal of honor, since she would be the first woman to receive it. But there is some sort of conspiracy and things just keep getting deeper and deeper. So yeah it's one of those patriotic feel good movies, but I found most of it dull and sort of boring. It just wasn't a very interesting film, I didn't even think the film left a big impact or was that powerful as some reviewers claim it to be. It just didn't seem to worth that much in the end and felt like it was mainly about American heroism but just wasn't that powerful.5/10