Gulf War | Wanderings and ... wonderings.

Courage Under Fire (1996).

A.K.A. the Meg Ryan movie that isn’t an insufferable rom-com – there is no diner buffoonery or a premise based around emails (it was 1998, I suppose) here. And she is fine in this. One might even mistake her for an actual actor, and I can comfortably say the same about Lou Diamond Phillips, who excels in this overlooked war drama as the dodgy one.

Nothing wrong with this film at all. Denzel great as always, a young Matt Damon shows up looking like a rake, the action is cracking, the story easy to follow, no thematic minefields on display, and I learned a few things watching it.

I’ll pass this knowledge on to someone one day if we ever discuss the Gulf War.

Jarhead (2005).

Jarhead (2005) is one of most visually unmemorable good movies ever. It all looks lovely but entirely anonymous, solid craftsmanship rather than the captivating. I can’t recall a single striking shot; the poster leaves more of an impression than any of the images. Maybe this is the point – capturing the monotony of war. But is war really this boring? A dozen other movies say no.

It’s quite the riot, though, for the first hour, lots of lolz and a frenetic pace, an atmosphere that builds up to something that … never really happens. The early promise peters out and you just get repetition. Once again this may be the point. But what’s the point? This is a war movie, not an episode of Seinfeld. Watch Three Kings (1999) instead. It’s about something.

And Chris Cooper’s high billing for this annoyed me. He is barely in it and leaves little impression other than a weak imitation of Robert Duvall’s Colonel Kilgore.

Wanderings and … wonderings.

Tag Archives: Gulf War

Courage Under Fire (1996).

Jarhead (2005).