Courage Under Fire

This film I particularly wanted to see because it is the film that featured Matt Damon in his early days. The concerning thing about Matt Damon is he had to slim down to the point where he looked disturbing and needed medication for the role. In fact in a biography I watched on TV he actually made a phone call to his parents and cried because the sickening diet he had embarked on was making him feel so horrible. So that's the story behind this review as to why I was particularly interested in it.

The movie itself was pretty good. Starring Denzel Washington as a troubled officer fresh out of the Iraq war sent to investigate and tie up the ends to the story of a female pilot being considered to receive a medal of honor. But when he interviews the rest of her crew that survived and none of their stories seem to add up he looks deeper into the situation and finds something he wasn't suppose to find. 

Now of course it has a twist ending that I wasn't expecting and everything is tied up in a sappy ending with gravestones and hugs and saddifying yet moving music blablabla but besides that it was pretty good. It covers both styles of film creating a balance between serious scenes with lots of talking AND action packed flashbacks to keep you in the movie. Don't let the army thing throw you off. It's a great movie to watch if you can ignore the sappy ending and understand the military lingo.

A little side note that probably isn't crucial for you to know but I'm gonna' say it because I need to fill up space is that I loved the name! Most movies with military themes, well hell most movies in general have such shitty titles. But Courage Under Fire sounds so bad-ass and not only does it sound bad-ass it sums up the movie entirely. A clever play on words as the movie is based around the centre plot of a pilot and her crew who were under fire. And then the fact that the main character (Denzel) is trying to get answers from the survivors who really need to dig up some hardcore courage to tell the story of what really happened that night. Thus the awesome title Courage-Under-Fire. I know I sound dumb pointing out the obvious but this obviousness is also awesomeness.

But what I really want to personally mention so I know it's out there is that even though matt Damon did not get one mention by critics when the movie was released in 97' I think he did a pretty good performance. It's not the most amazing acting I have ever seen (Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys takes that title) but it was really good. He nailed the role and showed amazing dedication to it seeing as he lost 18 kilos or 80 pounds for the yanks. It just sucked he didn't get anything good out of it.

So over all its a good film that many people can enjoy. I'm giving it a 7 out of 10. Nothing incredible but still bad-ass enough for me to love.