In light of certain events idea of young pretty blondes being war heroes doesn't look like Hollywood fantasy any more, so COURAGE UNDER FIRE is going to be more believable now than it was seven years ago. For director Edward Zwick this fictional story was another opportunity to explore the territory similar to his 1989 epic GLORY - role of minorities in American military history (blacks in American Civil War, women in Gulf War). For Meg Ryan this was opportunity to shed her image of romantic comedies queen and play some serious role for a change. Her task is even more complicated because she has to play different versions of the same character. She does it well, but the real star of the film is, of course, Denzel Washington. His regal presence and his character story is in the end more interesting than the story of Walden, because we know its ultimate outcome.

The biggest problem for COURAGE UNDER FIRE is in its ambition. The movie was obvious tailored for "Oscars", and Zwick tries to give extra dimension to otherwise simple story by modelling the main plot around Kurosawa's RASHOMON. Unfortunately, unlike in Japanese classic, different perspectives of truth mean very little - the movie faithfully observes unofficial rules of modern Hollywood. Since Walden happens to be woman in man's world, we know that she would end up like hero. And even troubled protagonist would be able to exercise his demons, in a scene that puts the traumatic event from the beginning of the film into different light. Because of that, viewers might feel cheated - they have expected thought-provoking exploration of realities of modern warfare and instead got Hollywood fairytale. Recent events show that some wars might indeed look like fairytales, but tell that to people who ended up on the wrong side of "friendly fire".