A Different Kind of War Film
Director Edward Zwick's second film about war is as layered and humane as his first, Glory (1989). But Courage Under Fire is not really a "war film" in the classic sense of that genre's terminology. Operation Desert Storm, the backdrop for Zwick's film, was not a war in the way Vietnam and World War II were wars; it hasn't found its way into our country's mythology like the jungles of Vietnam or the smoldering remains of European cities. Thus, Courage is entirely different from Platoon or Saving Private Ryan — it must build its own context rather than rely on what its audience may already know. Aside from being the first Hollywood-produced film concerning Desert Storm, Courage (and this DVD version, released five years after the film came out) reintroduces a war that, for many, has fallen from the country's memory.

Denzel Washington plays Nat Serling, a military officer struggling to keep his post-Desert Storm life together. When the film opens, Serling is leading the dozen or so tanks under his command slowly through a dusty desert night. When they draw fire from enemy tanks, he and his men retaliate. In the confusion that follows, Serling gives the order to fire on a tank that turns out to be one of his own. The military higher-ups try to bury the facts of this blunder in legislation and lies, and, soon, Serling's conscience begins to pull him away from his family and the man he used to be.

Serling is sent to conduct an inquiry on Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), who is slated to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor from President George Bush. The case should be a simple, by-the-book affair, but as Serling begins to investigate the circumstances surrounding Walden's death, discrepancies in the stories of the men he interviews lead him through lies and cover-ups that parallel his own experiences in the Gulf.

Patrick Sheane Duncan's screenplay cops its structure from Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, in which four characters relate four completely different takes on a murder. The technique is perfectly suited to Courage, which, at its center, presents a confounding mystery for Serling to figure out. The story allowed Duncan to thoroughly develop his characters, and it ends up being an effective device rather than a heavy-handed homage.

As Zwick points out during the commentary track, the film opens with familiar images and sounds from Desert Storm — scud missiles exploding, night-vision views of tanks and buildings, President Bush addressing the nation. Zwick then juxtaposes these media clips with the "real" war — Serling and company in combat. These opening scenes look fake, hiding their artifice behind an extremely loud sound design that becomes very grating and unnerving halfway through the film. The red-light interiors of the tanks, the shouted commands, and the empty desert terrain all feel plastic and posed, even though Zwick talks at length about the preparation his crew went through to make everything look as authentic as possible.

Thankfully, the movie boasts fine performances from Washington and Damon. The quiet scenes between the two actors are the best in the film. Meg Ryan may not have been the best choice to play a rough army officer, but she manages to pull it off. Even the supporting roles (especially Michael Moriarty as the marble-mouthed General Hershberg) are consistently well done.

Informative Commentary
Zwick's interesting, if dispassionate, commentary includes some great information about the shooting of the film. His comments are effective and impressive — he certainly knows his stuff when it comes to writing and acting. Though the story is fairly straightforward, Zwick's insights into the script, right down to specific lines of dialogue or particular gestures by the actors, are intriguing and significant. Less impressive is the featurette, a standard six-minute promotional short that has some nice behind-the-scenes shots but little else. Three trailers and three TV spots are thrown in for good measure, but the only thing worth one's while is Zwick's commentary.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen, with a rich and clean transfer. Roger Deakins' photography, especially his blown-out, too-bright combat sequences in the desert (an excellent stylistic move), comes across sparkling. The sound, available in DTS English, English 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround, and French Dolby Surround, is loud, so keep your remote handy to adjust the volume the second you see a gun or a helicopter. Despite some sentimentality at the end, Courage is a big step toward qualifying Desert Storm as a real war in the eyes of Americans, because, though we're often embarrassed to admit it, movies can be more important than history books in forming public opinion.