Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A US Army officer, who made a "friendly fire" mistake that was covered up, has been reassigned to a desk job. He is tasked to investigate a female chopper commander's worthiness to be awarded the Medal of Honor. At first all seems in order. But then he begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses...
Courage Under Fire uses a Rashomon-style structure to examine a Gulf War Medal of Honor case, which was relatively fresh for mainstream war cinema in 1996. The non-linear, testimony-based plot is competently executed and the dual storyline of the investigator's own guilt adds thematic weight. The acting is solid across the board — Denzel Washington anchors the film dependably and Meg Ryan's against-type performance is genuinely committed — but neither reaches a truly exceptional level. Cinematography is serviceable and functional war-drama work without distinctive visual ambition. The Rashomon conceit gives the film meaningful novelty for its genre and era, though it doesn't push the format as far as it could. The ending resolves both threads adequately but feels somewhat deflating and tidily conventional rather than resonant, undercutting the moral complexity the film builds.