Courage Under Fire

Courage Under Fire is a motion picture, released on Friday, July 12, 1996, starring Denzel Washington as Lieutenant Colonel Nate Sirling and Meg Ryan as Captain Karen Emma Walden, that was one of the first films to depict the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It told the tale of Washington's character's search for the truth about the death of Ryan's character (a helicopter pilot who would be the first woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor) and at the same time Sirling must confront the truth of a friendly fire incident. Sirling was a Tank Commander who accidentally gave the order to fire on one of his own tanks. This movie uses the same filmatic concept as the Japanese film, Rash?mon, wherein the truth of an event becomes difficult to verify due to the conflicting accounts of different witnesses. Matt Damon played Specialist Ilario in this movie. He reportedly lost 40 pounds for the role because his character was a heroin addict.

Gross Worldwide Takings: $100,860,818

External links

• Boxoffice information
• {{imdb title|id=0115956|title=Courage Under Fire}}