Last night I watched part of one of my husband's favorite films: "Courage Under Fire". Men like combat films, but he really loves Denzel Washington's performance in particular. Washington is great as a man who has made a mistake for which he cannot forgive himself. Regina Taylor is his match, as his wife who is trying to be patient while he is abandoning her and the kids. Matt Damon and Lou Diamond Phillips are stand outs as two soldiers on the mission in Iraq that kills their officer, played by Meg Ryan. She is more than good here, and it makes you wonder where she has gone and what happened to her. At her age, usually actresses switch to TV, but I don't hear anything of her. Scott Glenn is his usual complex self as a journalist, and everyone in the movie shines.
The topic is still of the moment: women in combat and their hard fight for authority and respect. And we can easily see the second Iraq war and Afganistan in the battle scenes. We know nothing has changed.
But the most interesting thing about the movie is the Rashamon type narrative. We see the incident where Captain Walden (Ryan) is killed from different perspectives. Everyone has a different story, and sees what he can bear seeing or what is self-serving. This choice makes the film transcend the details and forces us to look at interpretation and what we can believe of what we hear from others. Washington's character senses something untold, and that is because in his life he is struggling with unsaid truths begging to be spoken.
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