Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire is a 1996 American war drama film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan.The United States Army covers up the friendly fire incident, awards Serling a medal for bravery, and transfers him to a desk job.Staff Sergeant John Monfriez claims that Walden was a coward and that he led the crew in combat and improvised the fuel bladder weapon.Sergeant Steven Altameyer, who is dying of cancer in a hospital and was initially hard for Serling to find, complains about a fire in one of his few coherent comments.Feeling guilty about the cover up in the friendly fire incident, Serling leaks the existence of a tape of the attack to newspaper reporter Tony Gartner.[2] Lacking such access, the film-makers had to source equipment elsewhere, including having former Australian Army Centurian tanks modified to resemble the M1 Abrams depicted in the production."[10] Denzel Washington's acting was specifically lauded, as Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "In Washington's haunted eyes, in the stunning cinematography of Roger Deakins (Fargo) that plunges into the mad flare of combat, in the plot that deftly turns a whodunit into a meditation on character and in Zwick's persistent questioning of authority, Courage Under Fire honors its subject and its audience.[13] Denzel Washington was nominated for Best Actor at the 1996 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, but lost to Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade.