THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607130039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 60 lines
IN A SUMMER filled with big special-effects ``fun'' movies, the release of ``Courage Under Fire,'' the first major film set in the Desert Storm encounter, has been anticipated as a break for the thoughtful moviegoer. However, the finished product is not nearly as good as it should have been.
Ed Zwick's film about the investigation of a female officer who is a candidate for the Medal of Honor is a good deal more probing than provocative.
The movie is much too clinical and slick to get into the gritty aspects of what ``truth'' means, but it at least plays a nifty game.
The central plot, or at least the plot that should have been central, is the fact that Capt. Karen Walden, Army medevac helicopter pilot, was killed in the attempted rescue of the crew of another chopper downed behind Iraqi lines. The White House wants her to win the Medal of Honor because it would be ``one little shining piece of something for people to believe in.'' But the investigation gets mired in contradictions.
One witness describes her as a true heroine. Another claims she was a cry-baby who fell apart under pressure. A third falls somewhere in the middle.
This is the stuff of which great drama could be built. It is what is known commonly as the ``Rashomon'' theme (a reference to the classic Japanese film that examined one incident from varied points of view and ended with the realization that truth is different for each person).
A Hollywood mainstream movie, though, is not likely to remain ambiguous. There is absolutely no suspense about the outcome, only about the way it is played.
Meg Ryan is an unlikely choice for the flashback role of the officer. Pert Meg works hard, and effectively, at getting mussed up but not really gritty.
Denzel Washington is the troubled military man assigned to investigate the case. Looking introspective and brooding at all times, he is fine in the role, but the film is severely dissipated by letting his subplot get in the way of the central question. It seems that the character Washington plays was responsible for killing some of his own men.
What we have here is material for two films. It could be about an investigation of a heroine or it could be about a troubled military man who questions the system itself. The fact that it tries to be about both weakens it.
The acting is fine across the board. Lou Diamond Phillips, in fact, puts in a bid for an Oscar nomination for his supporting role of a macho military man. Scott Glenn is a reporter who lurks on the edges; he's another superfluous character who merely unfocuses the central plot. Michael Moriarty overacts flagrantly in what looks like a vague impersonation of Marlon Brando, but it's still interesting to watch him.
``Courage Under Fire'' is less than it might have been, but even at that, it presents a serious theme in a thoughtful and reflective way. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
``Courage Under Fire''
Cast: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael
Moriarty, Bronson Pinchot
Director: Edward Zwick
MPAA rating: R (language, wartime violence)
Mal's rating: three stars by CNB