Watch Under Fire For Free

Too much of everything

Pretty Good

i must have seen a different film!!

As Good As It Gets

First of all, I love this movie. The emotional atmosphere that is generated by director Robert Spottiswoode so illuminated for me the tensions of the sixties and particularly the Life and Times of President Kennedy's Camelot and Malcolm X's comment about 'chickens coming home to roost'. Many people misunderstood this comment when it was originally if somewhat indiscreetly made. Malcolm X was simply saying that when you live and work and earn your pay in an atmosphere of violence you should not be surprised when that atmosphere randomly and unexpected recoils against you or explodes in your face.Great Art can do this sometimes. That is, clarify on a visceral or emotional level the substance of a cultural trauma such as the martyrdom of political figures or the unimaginable catastrophic tragedy of an event like 9/11. Watching Russell Price, played by Nick Nolte and his lover, Claire Grazier, played by Joanna Cassidy, enter a zone of volatile political conflict and then emerge unscathed through the other side of the labyrinth caused me a palpable sense of relief. I felt the resolution of the piece to be as satisfying as any catharsis in the theater, but particularly suitable for the Cinema. At the end of UNDERFIRE I felt I understood something I did not understand before due to not being able to handle the charge of my emotions about it or the charge of the issues themselves. This new understanding was not exactly something I could put into words. But it had something to do with viewpoint and truth and the merchandising of political unrest and how a martyr can be put to the best possible political use.Russell Price is a globe-trotting photo-journalist who covers war torn countries as part of his stock and trade. He ends up taking pictures of a true event of violent death involving a colleague, but before that crosses the lines of journalistic ethics to help the people create a martyr and myth for the revolution. The people's revolution wins out not in small part to Price's pictures. But it's hard to say which set of pictures has the greater influence; the set recording the facts or the set bending the facts to create a hero for the revolution.UNDERFIRE speaks to the value of life and death in terms of dollar and cents, national destinies and simply the value of the life of a man of western privilege compared to the life of a man representing the aspirations of the grassroots. It is also about the priorities of belief and how these priorities can shift in the blink of an eye, as fast as the report of a rifle or the flight of leaflets out of the sky or even the mind of a mercenary just keeping the playing field level. The musical score of Jerry Goldsmith is haunting and memorable, and a part of it found itself borrowed for Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED, but here serves its purpose to its full glory. Pat Metheny deserves mention for the ethnic and guitar music. The tense visual sense of the environment and its rubble filled streets is largely the work of John Alcott, Director of Photography. While Oates the mercenary played by Ed Harris, Alex Grazier, the soon to be National News anchor being kicked upstairs out of Nicaragua and played by Gene Hackman, along with the wily and elegant Jean-Louis Trintigant representing the French branch of the CIA, round out the authenticity of the ensemble.

And as we know now, most of the politics of this film as represented have been totally accurate. At the time Director Roger Spottiswoode made this film, we really did not know much of what was happening there, or what would happen "20 years from now" - As it is now 20, 30 years from those events, This film has turned out to be prophetic. This was an accurate depiction of the fall of the Somoza regime, and unfortunately the US took wrong sides in supporting the deposed government, support which was shut down via the first President Bush - But not forgotten as wrong is wrong forever. But as Ed Harris (Oates) said about that time right after Somoza fled: "It's a Free Country NOW"- Which was true at the time.Standing out, and probably the best role she has ever played and certainly the most comprehensive, not just a bit part: Joanna Cassidy ("Claire" - Bladerunner, The 4th Protocol, Ghosts of Mars ), is magnificent here, a woman showing great talent- being split between Husband Alex Grazier (Gene Hackman) and Photographer Russel Price (Nick Nolte) and she is torn between the two throughout the whole film. With other greats mixed in, Ed Harris as the Mercenary-for-Hire "Oates" who really has no idea who is hiring him as shown in the prelude- in Chad under hire from revolutionaries there- Hires himself out to the Somoza government as the film shifts to Nicaragua- And in contrast to Nolte's character, has no sense of right or wrong, just who is paying him.This film follows Price, first in Africa, then Nicaragua, who at first is looking for good photographs to tell the story of what is happening in that part of the world. As he continues, first he is accosted by Somoza Military as "Taking Too Many Photographs" and later finds his way to the camp of the revolutionary leader "Rafael" - At one point laying down his camera after a boy he takes a liking to is killed and picking up a machine gun. Jean-Louis Trintignant (Jazy) is the "Spy" and we eventually find out what his agenda is, perhaps his character does not even know- Is he helping Price and Claire or is he using them to find "Rafael" (Jorge Zepeda - "Collateral Damage" and "The Arrival")? This film is compelling enough to make you want to find out. Jack Palance Daughter Holly also makes an appearance as a journalist. Some very distinguished Latin American Actors are used, most recognizable is Jenny Gago.Filmed in Chiapas, Mexico, makes a convincing Managua, Nicaragua (And other Nicaraguan Cities)- The story is gripping and once engaged, is difficult for the viewer to walk away, this is one of those films which brings the viewer right into the story rapidly. Probably Spottiswoode's best effort. Does not use gratuitous violence, car chases, explosions although those are in the story but only as viable parts of the story line.

The three stars of this flick I actually like a lot. The script was written by an excellent script-writer. It got a little gimmicky with the rich French guy and the photos, but so be it. The fact that the death of one gringo affected that war, well there was some truth to it. Certainly the real life death of Bill Stewart (?) caught on camera turned the Carter administration totally away from Somoza. Still the Hollywood story still plays out against the back drop of the FSLN Insurrection. The image of Los Muchachos came through with the exception of having a "leader" like Rafael. This of course was not the Sandinistas. It was a lot more democratic than that. (There was one turncoat leader whose name I've already blocked out of my consciousness.) But the Sandinistas as a group initially were rather small though potent. Eventually it was the people in the barrios--in Esteli, Leon, Matagalpa, Masaya, the gorgeous city of Granada and then Managua that eventually turned the tide.But to the flick itself. The film moves along well. It develops its characters believably and there enough are street shots of violence and war to keep a person interested. The locations look an awful lot like Nicaragua even though it wasn't shot there. As a gringo who went to Nicaragua in 1984 for a month, not as an emissary or a camp follower but as a supportive private citizen against the Contra war, the reality of many of the North Americans I met there, particularly journalists were that they wanted to be part of the glory. In many ways they (not all) were either star-struck or narcissistic. I found that the Nick Nolte and even Joanna Cassidy characters were very much similar to North American photo-journalists and journalists. Actually though the typical journalist sat around the pool at the Hilton and waited for the reports to come in. I saw that myself in 1984. Meanwhile everything in this film seemed as if it were all wrapped up in blood, glory and sexual hi-jinks (not that there's anything wrong with the sex part.) It could have shown the how the victims of this war got consciousness and eventually took to the streets. . . Still watch the picture not for complete historical accuracy, but it at least pays attention to events that happened at that time that brought the masses in Nicaragua the courage to determine their own future. The film identifies with those people and their rebellion. Unfortunately all that is changed today. . .

I knew someone that lived through this time period and was forced to evacuate the country. That's why I was initially interested in this film, to find out what happened during this time period. I've read every book I can find about these troubled years in Nicaragua, and I finished them feeling just as confused as I was before. Watching the movie helped me to understand just a little of what was going on in that part of the world where my friend once lived. It also shocked me to see what journalists must go through in order for us to see the pictures and read the stories of what goes on in war-torn areas of the world. Nick Nolte and Gene Hackman are two of my favorite actors, and they work very well together in this movie. The soundtrack music also gets stuck in my head. I can hear it now.....