Synopsis:
COURAGE UNDER FIRE: Following the 1991 Gulf War, Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) is assigned to review the background of the late Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), who has...
COURAGE UNDER FIRE: Following the 1991 Gulf War, Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) is assigned to review the background of the late Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), who has been posthumously nominated for a medal of honor. While investigating Walden's candidacy, Serling is forced to face his own disillusionment and guilt surrounding the war. As he begins the interviewing process, he uncovers several inconsistencies in the stories told by the late pilot's crew. The three officers, who may or may not have been saved by the captain's actions, all give drastically different accounts of the events leading up to Walden's death. Ilario (Matt Damon) paints Walden as an unselfish, courageous hero, while the surly Monfriez (Lou Diamond Phillips) describes her as a crybaby and a coward. The third soldier, Altameyer (Seth Gilliam), lies dying in an army hospital, mumbling guilty confessions in a medicated haze. Similar to the storytelling technique used in Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMON, director Edward Zwick's COURAGE UNDER FIRE features each officer's account of the fateful incident reenacted onscreen, offering wildly diverse portrayals of Walden. Meg Ryan shines in a role that demands she play one character a multitude of ways. As Serling pieces together the radically different tales of combat, he uncovers the painful truth and simultaneously faces his own pent-up guilt regarding the war.
THE THIN RED LINE: Terrence Malick returns to Hollywood after a two-decade hiatus with this adaptation of the classic WWII novel by James Jones. The story follows the efforts of an army platoon to capture the Japanese-controlled island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean, which will have a major effect on the outcome of the war. The members of C-for-Charlie Company are all fighting for different reasons: some to achieve glory, some to fight for democracy, and some simply to remain alive. They spend the quieter moments reflecting upon their existence, searching for meaning amid the senselessness of war.
Malick's reputation as one of cinema's most brilliant directors, based on his masterworks BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN, enabled him to pull together one of the largest ensemble all-star casts in Hollywood history. The result is a sprawling epic that carries itself like a poem read in a dream, a feeling that is greatly enhanced by John Toll's floating camerawork and Hans Zimmer's haunting score. Rather than concentrating solely on the violence and destruction of war, Malick uses the situation to address philosophical questions such as man versus nature, war versus peace, and good versus evil. THE THIN RED LINE proves that after a 20-year layoff, Malick hasn't lost a step.
MEN OF HONOR: An heroic life gets a suitably dramatic retelling in George Tillman Jr.'s docudrama MEN OF HONOR. Based on the true story of Carl Brashear, the first African American to become a United States Navy master diver, the film follows the conventional yet pleasurable against-all-odds narrative. Carl Brashear (played with noble grace by Cuba Gooding Jr.) is the son of a degraded southern sharecropper. Determined to succeed in the vocation he believes he was born for, Brashear enlists in the navy. Once there, however, the determined young man finds his dream inaccessible--thwarted by the antagonistic forces of institutional and personal racism. When, after a long and difficult struggle, he is finally allowed into diving school, he finds himself under the authority of Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro). A former master diver whose injured lung has left him permanently above water, Sunday simultaneously becomes Brashear's most vicious adversary and most loyal supporter, motivating him to succeed. The story that follows is a highly emotional wave of ups and downs--Brashear unbelievably overcomes one barrier only to be met by the next, even larger one. MEN OF HONOR is at times heartbreaking and painful to watch, but the triumphant ending makes for a deeply satisfying payoff.
TIGERLAND: Set in 1971, when America was a nation divided over the escalating violence and bloodshed of the Vietnam War, TIGERLAND begins when thousands of young soldiers had already lost their lives to the war, and thousands more were preparing to enter combat. In Fort Polk, Louisiana, a group of young soldiers-in-training has conflicting opinions about the war. Jim Paxton (Matthew Davis) is an idealistic romantic who sees Vietnam as potential inspiration for future novels and romantic war stories. Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell) is a rebellious antihero who decides that he wants no part of the army or the war and begins to disobey orders, trying to get expelled from the infantry. Paxton and Bozz become leaders to a small group of young draftees, and Bozz inspires them to question authority. As they enter Tigerland--a training process in which the soldiers simulate combat in the Louisiana wilderness--the men begin to realize just how far they will go to stay out of the war. This gritty, documentary-like vision of the war is engaging and incredibly moving, employing natural lighting, handheld cameras, and realistic dialogue to encapsulate the deeply internalized psychological journeys of the characters. Irishman Farrell gives a breakout performance as Bozz, replete with intense charisma and brooding outlaw heroism.
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