COURAGE UNDER FIRE (1996)

Most of Edward Zwick films are about unusual heroes and their valor and glory against unfavorable time and conflict. This one dealt with one of Gulf war US hero who sacrificed her life and supposed to be the first woman to get posthumous Medal of Honor for Combat. Zwick filled it more with aftermath or drama where inspired by Kurosawa classic ‘Rashomon’, he used multiple narratives of flashback to dig investigation about what happened at Al Kufan chopper crash during Gulf war where she died. The investigating officer is meddling with contradictory and different versions of truth from witnesses about the incident. Similarly his own guilt consciousness about other unfortunate event in the war impeding his inquiry to meet deadlines of report.

In his common zest for intense character portrayal Zwick dragged and fumbled the intrigue and editing in the middle where the drama becomes so much repetitive in flash-forward rather than flashback! Unlike his best works ‘Legends of Fall’ and ‘Glory’, it didn’t successfully uplift the drama or intensify the characters except Denzel Washington, a kind of actor who never gives you compromising performance; he knows damn well where to act underplay and where to show fire with expressions as honest as possible and his fans can watch his spark here too if not fire! Not much to talk about Meg Ryan and Matt Damon as they shared limited screen time.

Ratings-7/10