Courage Under Fire (1996)

By CinemaSerf

What makes this film stand out (a little) is the intimate style of photography. The POV camerawork gives us a proximity to the story and characters that we rarely see. Sadly, though, the story itself is a little bit thin. Denzel Washington is tasked with investigating the worthiness of a deceased helicopter pilot during the Gulf war to receive the medal of honor. Assuming it would be a routine ratification, he interviews her crew only to find discrepancies and inconstancies that cast a shadow over the whole procedure. Had this just been a routine wartime tale, then it might have been ok - but the fact that it is based around a real wartime scenario, and married together with that sickly trumpet-based pseudo-military score and an annoyingly "Semper Fi" sort of mentality, the whole thing just sinks down into a mire of absurdity and sentimentality. Neither Denzel Washington nor Meg Ryan really have the weight to give this film any bite, oomph - or, for that matter, plausibility. Matt Damon makes some impact but I couldn't quite decide whether that was because he was good, or because it was interesting to see him before stardom set it in - but either way, this is pretty much devoid of action, and the dialogue could have been written by the US Army recruitment office. They all look great in their uniforms, though!