Courage Under Fire [Blu-ray]

1 more product image	Directed by Edward Zwick Starring: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarty, Matt Damon Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1996, Blu-ray Customer Rating: 53 reviews   Recommend List Price: $29.98 Our Price: $14.99 (Price details) You Save: $14.99 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Free Shipping on orders over $25.

When Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) is asked to review the posthumous candidacy of the first woman (Meg Ryan) to receive a medal of honor, he finds himself plunged into an apparent cover-up surrounding the actions that led to her death. As he struggles to uncover the truth, he also finds himself forced to confront his own tormenting demons. Matt Damon co-stars in this powerful and provocative drama.

A year after a devastating friendly fire incident during the Gulf War, Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) is in a Washington, D.C., desk job assigned the rudimentary task of overseeing a Medal of Honor candidate who died in the war. However, the case and soldier in question are a political hot potato — Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) is America's first female soldier to be killed in combat.

Serling soon finds discrepancies in the case of a downed Medevac helicopter in the rocky Kuwait territory. What unfolds in flashback are several versions of Walden's tactics (à la Kurosawa's Rashomon) to rescue the soldiers and survive the downing. As with Glory, Director Edward Zwick's cast of unknown and famous faces always comes off as the real article. Walden's crew is especially convincing. Matt Damon as the medic comes off as the giddy scaredy-cat when telling his story to Washington. In battle he's a flawed, humorous soldier. The most surprising work in the movie is done by Lou Diamond Phillips (as the group's gunman), whose career had been headed to straight-to-video oblivion.

Then there's Ryan. She has done well with dramatic work in the past (When a Man Loves a Woman, Flesh and Bone) but has never been able to escape the romantic-comedy image. With dyed hair, a light accent, and the dramatics of the situation, Ryan finally has an enduring dramatic film. Even though she has half of Washington's screen time, her brave and ultimately haunting performance makes Courage something special, right down to its curious but rewarding final scene. — Doug Thomas

Title: Courage Under Fire [Blu-ray]
Sales Rank: 5684 in DVD
Actor: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarty, Matt Damon
Director: Edward Zwick
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2007-01-23, Theatrical Release: 1996
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Acpect Ratio 1.85:1
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), French (Original Language), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Region Code: 1
Running Time: 116 minutes
Package Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches, 0.18 pounds