Under Fire (1983)

Under Fire is a savvy political thriller of journalists in war-torn Nicaragua circa 1979. Clayton Frohman and Ron Shelton's (Bull Durham) script follows ace photojournalist Russell Price (Nick Nolte, in a key marquee performance) from the jungles of Africa to the Central American boiling point. Along with the usual band of fellow journalists, Price finds himself involved in a love triangle with Claire (Joanna Cassidy in her best role) and Alex Grazier (Gene Hackman, perfect again), who believes he's one career-making story from a lofty news anchor position. In Nicaragua, Price finds his own deadly mission: to photograph an unknown rebel leader.

Although the setup is traditional, Roger Spottiswoode's film feels as alive and vital as the best of the genre. Showing his ambiguity for the lives he shoots, Price is just as friendly with the impoverished in Africa as with an icy mercenary, Oates (Ed Harris in a role the polar opposite of his breakthrough performance in The Right Stuff the same year). On one level, Oates and Price are simply Americans doing their jobs in a foreign land. But soon Price has a change of heart. Blessed by a splendid final-act action sequence that is unforced and emotionally charged, the film is stuffed with color and energy, a good dose of which is supplied by Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score. --Doug Thomas Amazon.com essential video

EXCELENT SERVICE

It is a good product and service, but it took too long for me to receive the picture. Is there any other way to get the products faster? August 8, 2007

Under Fire

An engrossing, still timely drama about the role of the news media in covering violent political conflicts, "Fire" asks us to consider the ethics of objectivity, dramatizing the political transformation of a man who, in an act of journalistic deception, chooses to choose sides. Nolte is excellent as Price, the rugged veteran who experiences a change of heart behind rebel lines, while Cassidy, Hackman, and Ed Harris, playing a steely soldier-for-hire, add further fuel to this "Fire" with gutsy supporting roles. A tense object lesson in the dangers of eyewitness reporting. July 10, 2007

TOKYO JO

WELL, GREAT ACTING, GREAT MUSIC, GREAT COSTUMES. TO BAD THEY RUINED THE MOVIE BY MAKING IT A PRO MARXIST MOVIE. I HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME ENJOYING A MOVIE IN WHICH THE STARS ARE IN LOVE WITH A MARXIST REVOLUTION. WOW! WOULEND'T IT BE GREAT TO HAVE A COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT IN NICARAGUA.
November 30, 2006

Under Fire

This is a complicated, convoluted political thriller combined with a love affair between the three stars. Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and Joanna Cassidy. There is action but the action punctuates the plot and character development as opposed to being the point of the film. It was made in the mid'80's and you need to know it plays like a mid '80's film instead of the explosion every five minutes mentality of today. January 31, 2006

Taking sides

Under Fire is one of the few mainstream American `political' movies to emerge from the studio system, but along with Missing it's probably the best. On one level it grafts a traditional romantic triangle onto its story of American war correspondents in Nicaragua gradually finding themselves drawn to taking sides instead of taking pictures, but at least it's a convincingly grown-up relationship that allows Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and a never better Joanna Cassidy to really shine. It's a shame that Cassidy never got more opportunities like this: a last-minute replacement for Julie Christie, she's extraordinarily good here. The film also boasts an impressive supporting cast, with a star-making turn from Ed Harris as an amiable but deadly mercenary a standout, although Jean-Louis Tritignant's deceptively unsubtle CIA man gives him a run for his money (not so much for his performance - his English was non-existent and it's obvious he's learned his lines phonetically - but because he has most of the film's best dialog). Extremely well directed by Roger Spottiswoode with a promise he never really fulfilled, it's an impressive albeit partisan portrait of a country decaying in the last stages of revolution and also boasts what is possibly Jerry Goldsmith's finest score (which is saying quite something). Impressive stuff, but it's a shame that so little effort has gone into the DVD - the film is more than worthy of a special edition. October 29, 2005

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