Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Courage Under Fire (1996)
Director: Edward Zwick
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The Gulf War. In a night engagement, Lt Col Nathaniel Serling (Washington) gives the order to fire on one of his own tanks and kills his best friend. Later, having taken a desk job under Gen Hershberg (Moriarty), he's detailed to investigate helicopter pilot Karen Walden (Ryan), who's been recommended for the Medal of Honor. He discovers conflicting testimonies in Walden's case, and also that his own guilt can no longer be hidden. Will the combination of absence from his family, drink, the promptings of journalist Tony Gartner (Glenn), and the conflicting pulls of 'truth' and 'honour' take away his moral courage to deliver the right report? Zwick's second movie with Washington, following his Civil War epic Glory, is a rolling campaign. It starts well, with an opening 'fog-of-war' sequence of old-fashioned panache. And as the detective-story flashback structure gets under way, what initially seemed adherence to dramatic and moral cliché becomes more complex and interesting. But having set up the pins and knocked 'em down, Zwick disappointingly starts standing them up again - to demonstrate the compromising nature of his 'liberal' values.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Edward Zwick
Producer: John Davis, Joseph M Singer, David T Friendly
Cast: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarty, Scott Glenn, Matt Damon, Bronson Pinchot full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 116 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now