Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageUnder Fire (1983)
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Riding to another Central American firefight come three journalists: reporter Hackman, tired of Third World wars; Nolte, Hackman's colleague and obsessive lensman; Cassidy, a radio reporter shifting her affections from Hackman to Nolte. Spottiswoode constructs a true portrait of these people, with no part of their lives, personal, moral, or political, which is not deeply informed by journalism; everything they do is subsumed in the great quest for the major scoop. Cassidy gives us a generous, no-nonsense Hawksian woman; Nolte is superb, American cinema's nearest thing to a tiger and a true heir to Robert Mitchum. As an immediate picture of what it feels like to be under fire, the black fear of being shot for nothing in a rubble-strewn street, the movie is way ahead of earlier examples like Missing; indeed, it takes an honourable place alongside classic war-torn romance pictures like Casablanca and To Have and Have Not; and there are ways in which it exceeds them. A thrilling film, with a head, a heart, and muscle. CPea.Author: CPea
Cast & crew
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Producer: Jonathan Taplin
Cast: Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Hamilton Camp, Alma Martinez, Holly Palance, René Enriquez, Martin Lasalle full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 127 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Bond a day: No.7 'Diamonds Are Forever'
Join Time Out as we revisit the 21 official James Bond movies to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
Steve McQueen on 'Hunger'
Dave Calhoun meets artist Steve McQueen’s whose debut feature film, ‘Hunger’, is the story of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands
Producer Stephen Woolley on ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’
Stephen Woolley, recalls the near catastrophes he had to contend with in bringing Toby Young’s memoir to the screen
Paul Newman: 1925 – 2008
Paul Newman died at his Connecticut home this weekend, at the age of 83. We look back at one of the great movie careers of the twentieth century
Richard Attenborough: interview
‘Entirely Up to You, Darling’ is the long-awaited autobiography from Sir Richard Attenborough. David Jenkins meets him in his Richmond home
Hard hacks to follow
To celebrate the release of 'How To Lose Friends and Alienate People', Time Out pick some of the toughest journalistic gigs in cinema
What do you think?
Post your review now