Review: Courage Under Fire

Denzel Washington stars as a Lt. Colonel tasked with investigating the worthiness of proposed Medal of Honour recipient, Capt. Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), who died whilst fighting in the first Gulf War. The Lt. Colonel has his own issues however, both domestic (marital issues with wife Regina Taylor) and military (a fatal mistake he made in war). Matt Damon and Lou Diamond Phillips play soldiers under Walden’s command, Scott Glenn plays a journalist, whilst Michael Moriarty is an S.O., with Zeljko Ivanek his subordinate.

Wannabe military “Rashomon” from 1996 directed by Edward Zwick (“Glory”, “The Last Samurai”, “Blood Diamond”) isn’t anywhere near as bad as I remember on initial viewing, but definitely lacks in some areas. Scripted by Patrick Sheane Duncan (“Nick of Time”, “Mr. Holland’s Opus”), the central mystery is surprisingly ho-hum, and Meg Ryan (bless her heart) is comically out of her depth in one of the worst cases of miscasting of the 1990s. As someone described by others as ‘butch’, the petite, cutesy actress is nothing less than ‘femme’. Cast Lori Petty, Juliette Lewis, or Famke Janssen even and there’d be zero problem. I’m all for actors trying to branch out…you’ve just got to pull it off, and Ryan does the very opposite of that in a crucial supporting role. If you don’t buy into her, you don’t buy into the character, and it’s therefore difficult to buy into the film.

That’s a shame, because although talky, the rest of the film isn’t too bad. No, the story isn’t really worthy of the “Rashomon” narrative device, but Ryan’s miscasting is the real debit here. The always mannered Michael Moriarty is pretty poor too (not to mention he’s a poor man’s Jon Voight), and Regina Taylor has a serious case of ‘Can you please speak the fuck up’. Why is she always whispering? The rest of the cast though, do pretty well. First and foremost is Denzel Washington in a role that was perhaps a warm-up for his fine work in “Flight” (a film with a slightly similar structure, too). I didn’t like the completely irrelevant opening scenes that serve more of a character function than plot, but I can’t deny Denzel’s really good here in the lead role. A pre-“Good Will Hunting” Matt Damon impresses and alarms here, seemingly taken one helluva Method approach to play a troubled and eventually very gaunt-looking soldier. He’s very believable in the part, and you can already see the talent and star quality here. I think as good as Denzel is, Damon’s scenes (especially those not featuring Ryan) are the film’s strongest. Although he’s on hand for the film’s downright silliest scene (You won’t miss it), the underrated Lou Diamond Phillips also does a rock-solid job here. He’s a versatile actor (who clearly worked out a helluva lot for the film) and like Damon, his scenes have some juice and tension to them, even though the central mystery is itself not especially compelling. Phillips does the best he can with what he is given. Also doing that is veteran character actor Zeljko Ivanek, in a pretty thankless role.

Three strong performances ultimately don’t quite cover for one very bad case of miscasting and a story that isn’t anywhere near compelling enough to deserve the “Rashomon” narrative device. It’s watchable but a disappointment in the end.

Rating: C+