A U.S. Army officer, despondent about a deadly mistake he made, investigates a female chopper commander's worthiness for the Medal of Honor.
Two fictional combat stories come together in this film set during the Gulf War (Aug. 1990-Feb. 1991) and afterwards. LCol Nat Serling is haunted by a mistake he made that cost the lives of a friend and his tank crew. He investigates the recommended Medal of Honor for Capt. Karen Walden, who was killed after her rescue helicopter was shot down. Conflicting reports lead him to probe deeper to uncover the truth about Walden and all of her crew, who survived. In the process, he comes to grips with his own demons.
Amazing as it might sound, this movie was not nominated for a single Academy Award. And it deserved many nominations. It is way better than Shine, Fargo, The English Patient, Romeo and Juliet, The Craft and most other movies released in 1996. Certainly the best of that year, in a tie with The Rock and Scream. Seeing Meg Ryan playing a character that is not stupid is such a revelation. Unbelievable and unforgettable movie.
Nat Serling returns from the Gulf war having been involved in a friendly fire incident. Even though he is cleared, he still carries the guilt but is looked after by the army and helped into a comfortable job in the Pentagon. He is assigned to assess the nomination of Captain Karen Walden for the medal of honour – an seemingly open and shut case that everyone wants to be passed for the public relations opportunity of awarding a woman captain the posthumous medal. However, when Serling starts to investigate he finds some minor differences in the stories and the more he pushes the survivors the more the story starts to fall apart. Despite the pressure from his superiors, Serling continues to dig for the truth.<br/><br/>Looking back at this film now it is perhaps a little frustrating how little it seems to critically analysis the issues behind war and politics and instead just plays it as a straight thriller with the Gulf only serving as a background and not as subtext. With this aspect put to one side the film just about manages to work as a thriller but not a particularly good one. The plot is very much &#39;he said, she said&#39; stuff and it is not as dramatic as it would like to think it is. The film tries to inject pace into it with a series of extreme actions by the characters and the excitement of the battle sequences but really it doesn&#39;t amount to a terrible lot. The subplot over Serling&#39;s incident never really feels relevant and was either tacked on or badly handled to the point that it seemed tacked on. Either way the plot is not as involving as it really should have been – it does OK enough to make it worth watching once but it&#39;s no great shakes.<br/><br/>The cast is impressive though and contains many stars as well as faces that have become a lot more famous since this. Washington is troubled and interesting, even if he has to occasionally switch on the worry on request. He is a good leading man and has good presence; his delivery goes part of the way to helping inject a bit of urgency into some of the scenes in this rather talky film. Ryan was a strange choice but I suppose she was desperate to have something to show her range. While it is easy to dismiss her performance, she is OK but it would have been a lot better if her performance had changed more that it did between the few accounts – but I guess her range is not as wide as she would like to think it is. Outside of these two the main players are those in Walden&#39;s crew; Damon looks very young and does OK, Phillips is physically impressive but his character is difficult to totally swallow and Gilliam is a lot more understated than he was in Oz. The rest of the cast is populated by a large number of well-known faces including Taylor, Ivanek, Pinchot, Astin, Glenn, Thomas, McGill, Hall and Jenkins. Few of them have anything to do but their presence was rarely a distraction to me although I can imagine some viewers might be put off by the &#39;where do I know him from&#39; factor.<br/><br/>Overall this is an average drama that is talky and relies on the actors to try and inject into a plot that is really just about the different characters trying to cover their own backs. The cast are mostly good but Ryan&#39;s reach exceeds her grasp and they are mostly let down by average material. Worth a watch once for what it is but I can&#39;t imagine too many viewers will be returning for a second look.
While the account of Walden's heroics doesn't necessarily move from legend to fact, it does push the bounds of truth and raise interesting questions about the function of truth for the survivors of war.
The image used in this article is the DVD cover from the UK release (which is also indicated by the &quot;15&quot; in the lower right corner). This is not a deliberate misspelling or disrespect toward American military by the movie studio, but a special design meant for the UK market.
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