"Courage Under Fire" A Film Review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL July 13, 1996 The question of women's ability to assume leadership roles in the military is one that has, incredible as it may seem, surfaced once again in recent weeks with the Supreme Court's decision to force the Virginia Military Institue to admit women. And even though women have been serving as officers in the military for many years, now, they still don't have full access to all leadership roles including those that are most highly valued by the military itself, namely combat assignments. In wartime, however, it is virtually impossible always to draw a sharp line between what is combat and what is a support role. And this fact is what provides the impetus to the plot of "Courage Under Fire," a fictional (but highly plausible) account of an Army medivac helicopter pilot named Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) whose chopper is shot down while on a rescue mission during the Gulf War and who is the first woman to be presented the Medal of Honor for bravery in combat. This is a big budget Hollywood war picture with a lot of footage (both archival and cinematically created) of the largely high tech but occasionally close-range combat that characterized this desert war. What makes it interesting, however, and several cuts about the kill-the-evil-enemy heroics of the WWII war pictures I was raised on, is the large number of quite complex psychological character studies it contains, coupled with the suspense of a mystery to be unravelled. As the film opens Nat Serling (Denzel Washington) is a Col. in an armored division who, in the heat of battle in a confusing situation gives an order to fire on what he supposes to be an enemy tank but turns out to have been one of his own, commanded by a dear friend. The Army covers it up, gives him a medal and a career- killing desk job at the Pentagon. Being eaten away by remorse, his marriage and his health are under assault from the alcohol he uses to deaden his psychic pain. He is given what seems on the surface a routine assignment to investigate the events that led up to the posthumous nomination of Karen Walden for the nation's highest award for valor. In his desire to do this assignment right, he digs beneath the surface and discovers troubling inconsistencies in the stories of the Walden's crew and testimony of the stranded troops whose lives she is credited with saving. His obsession with finding the truth of the Walden case turns out also to be about undoing the lies about his own situation. As Serling interviews participants in the Walden case, the events of the rescue attempt are shown in flashback and repeated several times reflecting the differing perspectives of the divergent versions of the story. So Meg Ryan gets an opportunity to play these scenes several times playing them several different ways, from tough superhero to frightened coward to courageous leader and protector of her men. To her credit, she is credible in each version (though by no stretch of the imagination, even in her toughest pose, does she seem "butch" as she is described by one character.) There are a number of more minor women characters in the film and all, thankfully, are multidimensional and believable. Particularly notable is Regina Taylor's performance as a woman who has learned, over years of struggle, how to be an Army wife without losing herself in the process. Two of my favorite actors from decades past, Kathleen Widdoes and Diane Baker, have small roles as the mothers of Walden and the tank commander killed by friendly fire. My only real complaint about the film is how the script neatly ties up all the loose ends into such a tidy little package at the end. The basic message is that though there may be lies and duplicity and all other manner of problems in the military, the military itself will right these wrongs and, thereby, remain the ever heroic and noble protectors of the American way. In real life, things do not always turn out quite so picture perfect; a bit of residual ambiguity would have made for a better picture (though perhaps not such a big box-office draw). For the WMNF Women's Show, this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film.For the WMNF Women's Show, this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1996. All rights reserved. Please do not copy or reproduce this review without permission of the author: mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu.