A strong contemporary war drama examining issues of loyalty, protocol, duty and ultimately truth in an unusually constructed film within a film, at the same using multiple viewpoints ( a la "Rashomon" or "Accident") to unfold the complicated truth at its heart. I'm not sure the somewhat contrived structure served the serious subject matter wholly convincingly, the cinematic devices detracting somewhat from the otherwise lifelike depiction of action in the Gulf War.
I also thought Denzel Washington's framing role as the senior army officer given the seemingly straightforward task of reporting on the apparently automatic eligibility of Meg Ryan's posthumous award of the Army medal of honour detracted from the central mystery, especially as he wrestles with his own demons after unwittingly being involved in a tragic friendly-fire incident of his own. So Denz fights the bottle and walks out on his family, before uncovering the truth about Ryan's death and the way back to his own redemption.
This final resolution and the underlying implication that the US Army welcomes openness is firstly too pat and improbable, especially in the wake of some real-life events that have come to light since then. All that said, the dramatisation of the war is very well realised and the acting is of a high order, Washington giving it strong and silent in a commanding lead role, but there are even better performances from a young Matt Damon and Lou Diamond-Phillips as two of Ryan's crew who survive the ordeal physically but not mentally.
Ryan does well too and I was also impressed by the actress in the menial task of playing Washington's wife. Yes, the film ends up as you'd expect, replete with Washington's last respectful visit to Ryan's grave, but there was enough intrigue and grit in the tale to keep me watching throughout. A braver take on the story, inverting some of the discovered truths here might have made for a better film though, but of course there's no way that viewpoint would have been green-lighted in Hollywood.
I also thought Denzel Washington's framing role as the senior army officer given the seemingly straightforward task of reporting on the apparently automatic eligibility of Meg Ryan's posthumous award of the Army medal of honour detracted from the central mystery, especially as he wrestles with his own demons after unwittingly being involved in a tragic friendly-fire incident of his own. So Denz fights the bottle and walks out on his family, before uncovering the truth about Ryan's death and the way back to his own redemption.
This final resolution and the underlying implication that the US Army welcomes openness is firstly too pat and improbable, especially in the wake of some real-life events that have come to light since then. All that said, the dramatisation of the war is very well realised and the acting is of a high order, Washington giving it strong and silent in a commanding lead role, but there are even better performances from a young Matt Damon and Lou Diamond-Phillips as two of Ryan's crew who survive the ordeal physically but not mentally.
Ryan does well too and I was also impressed by the actress in the menial task of playing Washington's wife. Yes, the film ends up as you'd expect, replete with Washington's last respectful visit to Ryan's grave, but there was enough intrigue and grit in the tale to keep me watching throughout. A braver take on the story, inverting some of the discovered truths here might have made for a better film though, but of course there's no way that viewpoint would have been green-lighted in Hollywood.