James Hitchcock "Courage under Fire" was one of the earliest films about the First Gulf War of 1991. (When the film was made in 1996, that conflict was simply known as the "Gulf War" as the Second did not occur until 2003). Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling, a US Army officer, is assigned to determine whether Captain Karen Walden should posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, making her the first woman to be given this award for valour in combat. Walden, the commander of a Medevac helicopter, was killed while attempting to rescue the crew of another helicopter that had been shot down.Serling goes about his task of interviewing the survivors of this incident, and at first everything seems to be straightforward, with the witnesses praising Walden's courage and coolness, but he begins to notice inconsistencies between their testimonies. Everything becomes much more complex when another survivor, Sergeant Monfriez, tells him in no uncertain terms that Walden was a coward and blatantly contradicts what the other witnesses have said. Serling then has to decide where the truth lies. A complicating factor is that he himself has been burdened by guilt ever since he was involved in a friendly fire incident during the war in which a friend was killed.The film was directed by Edward Zwick who was also responsible for "Glory", one of the few great war films of the eighties. "Courage under Fire" represents an interesting development of the war film in the nineties. Although there are exceptions (such as "Catch-22"), most of the very large number of American films about World War II take an unashamedly heroic, patriotic view of that particular conflict. Most of the much smaller number of films about Vietnam take an equally unashamedly pacifist, anti-war position, "The Green Berets" being about the only exception. (Films about Korea tend to fall into both camps. Some, especially those made during or shortly after the war like "The Hunters", take the standard patriotic line. Others take an anti-war stance, notably "M*A*S*H*", which was made during the Vietnam War and has been seen as a disguised film about Vietnam). "Courage under Fire", by contrast, belongs to that small group of films ("The Red Badge of Courage" about the American Civil War is another good example) which seek to illuminate the soldier's life in wartime without pushing either a strongly patriotic or strongly pacifist message. It also can be seen as belonging to another class of films, those which (like Kurosawa's "Rashomon") attempt to tell a story from several viewpoints and show how the same events can be seen in very different ways by different people. The confusion of war, in which no person has access to more than a small part of the total picture, makes this method of storytelling seem particularly appropriate to a war film. It was this very confusion which led to Serling giving the order to fire on one of his own tanks in the heat of battle and which leads to some of the inconsistencies in the evidence about how Captain Walden was killed, although it must be said that some of the witnesses are deliberately lying to cover up their own less than honourable behaviour. When the truth finally emerges it becomes clear that Walden was far from being a coward, but also that not all the witnesses who praised her were giving a truthful account of events. Meg Ryan, Hollywood's official Girl Next Door of the nineties, might have seemed a strange choice to play a tough Army captain, but this was the film which finally showed there was more to Meg's acting talents than the ability to look pretty in romantic comedies. She had tried to show another side to herself in the neo-noir "Flesh and Bone" and the more serious romantic drama "When a Man Loves a Woman", but neither is among her better films. Here, however, she gives a pitch-perfect performance, making Walden tough and determined, but never so much that she becomes unsympathetic. Denzel Washington is also very good as Serling, a very important role as the film is not just about Walden but also about the story of how Serling learns to forgive himself for his friend's death. Of the supporting cast, the best is Lou Diamond Phillips as Monfriez.Unlike the standard World War II film, "Courage under Fire" is not a gung-ho patriotic adventure story; it remains neutral about the rightness or wrongness of the First Gulf War. Unlike the standard Vietnam movie, however, it is not an anti-war diatribe either. It takes a respectful line on the men and, in this case, women of the US Armed Forces who put their lives on the line for their country and gives us a humane and intelligent look at the difficult circumstances of war. A new type of war film for the nineties. 8/10

LeonLouisRicci There is a strong Story here as an investigation ensues about a potential Medal of Honor recipient and the mysterious conflict of testimonies. It is given a twist with a shot of estrogen as the Soldier involved is the first Female to possibly (Posthumously) be awarded the Nation's Highest Military Honor.That should be enough to make this a riveting Mystery and through flashbacks we are shown some striking battle Scenes. So why add the conflict and strife to the investigating Officer. It is completely unnecessary and is the weakest part of the Film and almost drags it down with unconvincing situations of Combat guilt and Family Dysfunction. That could be a whole other Movie. But with that bloating aside there are some strong Performances by the young Cast (actually outshining Denzel) in supporting Roles as the Combat Unit in question. There is a back Story to everyone and it holds up quite well with the central Theme. It must be mentioned here that although, Meg Ryan is miscast as the Captain, she tries her best but cannot outgrow her limitations and convince as a tough Girl in a hopeless, self sacrificing situation.Overall, not a bad Movie and is worth a watch for the strong parts, but there is much too much padding here, plus the heavy dose of sentimentality finally drags this down from Great Movie to just above Average.

floyd beck Sorry, but I cannot stomach a movie that is pro-military when Meg Ryan, a devout Democrat and worshiper of John Kerry, the war-hater and devout liar, and Denzel Washington, a worshiper of President Obama and a devout Democrat who is said to be a devout Christian. One cannot be both...in 2011, the Democrats voted NO to have God inserted in their convention, in spite of the chairman's blatant lie; just one of 100 reasons.So, after my ranting, what about the movie? It is too hard to believe any of it because the actors are not sincere in true life. It would be like having an openly gay person portray Rudolph Valentino unless the movie was a comedy. Courage Under Fire does not pass as a comedy unless one forces one's mind to the point of insanity to see liberal war-hating actors and actresses pretend to be pro-military.

jack-964 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!