Courage Under Fire (1996)

Lt. Colonel Nat Serling (Oscar-winner Denzel Washington) is a recent veteran of Operation Desert Storm and a deadly mistake which he made in the heat of combat is still haunting him.  He has been tasked by his officer to investigate the service of recently deceased Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) who flew a chopper on a rescue mission during that war and is now being considered for the Medal of Honor.  As Serling investigates various other soldiers who were involved in this mission, he not only realizes how getting to the truth of what actually occurred is more complicated than he expected, but he also struggles with his own trauma about an incident he was involved with which resulted in the death of a former colleague.  Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond, Legends of the Fall, Defiance), this stirring military drama/mystery thriller also co-stars Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarity, Scott Glenn, Regina Taylor, and Matt Damon.

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

Transcript

COURAGE UNDER FIRE - 1996

Directed by Ed Zwick

Starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarty, Bronson Pinchot, Seth Gilliam, Regina Taylor, Zeljko Ivanek, Scott Glenne, Tim Guinee, Tim Ransom, Sean Astin, Ken Jenkins, and Matt Damon

Genre: Military Drama Mystery

I had forgotten how good this was as it seems that this kind of got lost in the shuffle of a lot of military-themed thrillers from this era. It's also kind of amazing that this came out just a year after Crimson Tide as Denzel is once again playing a military officer though besides the military settings, his characters could not have been MORE different. Whereas his Captain Hunter in 'Tide was an young, confident, athletic upstart boldly challenging the system in a time of crisis....his Nat Serling in this movie is a veteran who's weathered, thicker, alcoholic, and completely humbled by a tragic mistake he made while in combat. Denzel LITERALLY went from the Tom Cruise archetype to the Gene Hackman archetype in barely a year and he gave great performances in both. 🫡

Beyond that, you had Meg Ryan also stretching her acting legs at the time (from a string of rom coms) as Captain Karen Walden, a Desert Storm pilot who died in combat and is now on the verge of being the first woman to win the Congressional Medal of Honor - her performance is all within flashbacks thought that brings its own set of challenges as withhin each flashback, her character is portrayed a bit differently. Ranging from sniveling coward to self-less hero, Ryan rises to the challenge of playing each version pretty effectively.

Almost stealing the movie in two notable supporting performances are Lou Diamond Phillips and an unrecogizably thin young Matt Damon as two of the soldiers who were there, each giving VERY different accounts of what occurred with Ryan's Captain Walden in the heat of combat. Both Phillips and Damon give very physical performances where their behaviors - Damon sitting by a pool, Phillips preparing to spar - while they are talking to Washington's Serling, tell as much about them as what they actually say.

At the end of the day, this is still mostly Denzel's movie as his character is given the most compelling arc, with Regina Taylor doing a strong job playing his beleaguered wife. Granted the film does drift into sentimentality at points, especially helped by a sometimes overwrought-but-always-effective score from the late, great James Horner. But with so much talent involved doing what they were hired to do, it all just comes together nicely as a compelling war drama/mystery.

Best Needle-drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):

Now SPEAKING of that score from 10x Oscar-nominee James Horner….few were ever better at pulling heartstrings as he did for his Oscar-WINNING score for Titanic along with Field of Dreams, Avatar, previous episodes Aliens and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan….and of course, what I consider to STILL be his greatest and it also happened to be his FIRST collaboration with Ed Zwick AND Denzel, previous episode Glory.  Just an all-timer! (Audio clip) 

Now is Horner’s score as good as that one? Nope.  Does its main theme even sound a BIT derivative of that films, just without the chorus?  Yeah probably.   But it works and we hear this main theme throughout the film punctuated with those soaring strings…..and it never works better than during the final moments of the film as Denzel’s Serling is finally returning home to his loving family whom he has neglected up until this point.  It’s hard to NOT be moved by this, this track is simply called, “Hymm.” (Audio clip)  

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Every one is BRINGING it with their performances but if I’m being honest, I would have liked a few actors to be given more just to flesh their characters out a bit.  Bottom line – whether it’s a screenplay issue or editing/runtime issue – this story just feels a bit overstuffed at points where it seems pretty obvious that some characters/actors had chunks of heir performances left on the cutting room floor.  Casting Bronson Pinchot as Bruno, the White House press person seems to call attention to that character in such a way that it’s kind of surprising that we only really spend any time with him early in the film…..the great Scott Glenn delivers a nice performance as a sympathetic reporter for the Washington Post but we also hardly hear from him too, even when his ongoing journalistic investigation into events at Desert Storm pretty much bring the story to a head. (Audio clip) 

And yeah, she’s very good with what she’s given especially considering we see a few different interpretations of her character but Meg Ryan is actually in less of this film than you would think – this was during the peak of her ‘90’s stardom so she was given second billing for this film, above the title too right next to Denzel.  But if we’re being honest, she’s more like the fifth or sixth lead.  We ONLY get to know Karen Walden in relation to this ONE incident but she’s not really given much interiority besides that.  It doesn’t sink the movie overall but I would have liked a bit more…. (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

It’s funny to notice that even almost thirty years after this film came out with recent previous episode Disclosure Day from Spielberg, the tension of a train crossing can STILL be such an effective dramatic device…..that movie features one as probably its most prominent action sequence and this film uses one as pretty much its dramatic climax, even moreso than any flashbacks to that harrowing incident in Desert Storm.  This sequence occurs about eighty minutes into the film when things are finally coming to a head between Denzel’s Serling and Lou Diamond’s Monfriez…it’s CLEAR by this point that Monfriez is still hiding something about that incident which has been eating away at him.  So he takes Serling on a drive…. (Audio clip) 

Both actors are really bringing it here with an exchange which on paper could come off as just cheesy in lesser hands….Lou Diamond sells it the most, he clearly can no longer live with what he did and beyond that, he would rather just leave this earth before even having to ADMIT what he did.  And this scene not only moves us a BIT closer to the truth coming out about the incident involving Captain Walden….but it’s also the FIRST point in the story where Serling decides NOT to drink, JUST before it all goes down.  Hey this might seem cliched but it works in the hands of genuine talent…..as does the train crashing into the car of course. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Overall, almost every character beat adds up into an impressive mix of show-and-tell to move the central mystery forward and director Ed Zwick once again once again demonstrates why he is one of THE most underrated actor's directors of the past several decades. Why isn't Zwick talked about more?? 🤔 The fact that he's made some strong war films like this, Defiance, and Glory while also excelling at romantic comedies with About Last Night (drawing great performances out of both Demi Moore and Rob Lowe at a time when likely NO OTHER filmmakers were) and Love and Other Drugs...who else short of maybe Demme, Boyle, or Soderbergh has proven SO adept at switching genres like that?  He might be due at some point for some recognition for directing one of the more underrated war dramas of the ‘90’s, Edward Zwick is the MVP. (Audio clip)  

Final Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Happy 30th Anniversary to a true gem of its time which could easily be dismissed as both too jingoistic AND too woke, depending on the audience today…maybe, that’s just how good of a blend this film is tonally.  Also Happy Independence Day and of course….Happy 250th Birthday to the United States of America!

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And that ends another VALOROUS review!