Movies - Courage Under Fire

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	Movies - Courage Under Fire

Courage Under Fire is a motion picture, released in 1996, starring Denzel Washington as Lieutenant Colonel Nate Sirling, Meg Ryan as Captain Karen Emma Walden, and Matt Damon as Specialist Ilario. It is 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, Rashōmon, wherein the truth of an event becomes difficult to verify due to the conflicting accounts of different witnesses. The major difference here is that in Roshomon the characters believe in the truth of the stories they tell. In Courage Under Fire, several of the characters deliberately lie to protect themselves.

Box office

US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 59,031,057 :+ Other International Takings: $41,829,761 = Gross Worldwide Takings: $100,860,818

Triva

The tanks are British Centurions with sheet metal added to make them look like M1A1 Abrams tanks; they were shipped from Australia when the US Department of Defense withdrew their cooperation.
The White House rose garden set was destroyed twice: once by a tornado, and once by a sandstorm.
In the film the Medal of Honor is placed around the neck of Capt. Walden's daughter. In reality, the Medal of Honor is never placed around the neck of anyone other than the person receiving the award.
The basic concept of the movie is borrowed from Rashômon (1950).
In some of the background scenes in the training camp, cadets from Texas A&M University were used as extras.
The Iraqi battle scenes were filmed at the Indian Cliffs Ranch, located just outside El Paso, Texas. Many of the props were left there and became a tourist attraction.
Matt Damon
lost 18 kilograms for his role in the movie.
This was the first movie produced by Fox 2000 Pictures to be released in theatres.
Loosely inspired by the 3 October 1993 incident in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down and two Delta Force operatives sacrificed their lives to save the pilot, later receiving the Medal of Honor. The story of the incident is told in detail in Black Hawk Down
( 2001 )
In order to lose the required amount of weight for the present day scenes, Matt Damon went on a strict regimen of food deprivation and physical training. This caused his health to become so frail that he was put on medical supervision for several months after the shoot. However, his efforts didn't go unnoticed: director Francis Ford Coppola was so impressed by Damon's display of method acting, that he offered him the leading role in The Rainmaker ( 1997 ).

Release dates

Canada - 12 July1996
USA - 12 July1996
Australia - 12 September1996
Finland - 20 September 1996
UK - 4 October 1996
Argentina 10 October 1996
Hong Kong 17 October 1996
New Zealand 17 October 1996
Spain 29 October 1996
Philippines 30 October 1996
Japan 2 November 1996
Switzerland 22 November 1996
Sweden 3 January 1997
Belgium 8 January 1997
France 8 January 1997
Norway 10 January 1997
Portugal 10 January 1997
South Africa 10 January 1997
Germany 16 January 1997
Netherlands 23 January 1997
Estonia 24 January 1997
Poland 24 January 1997
Hungary 30 January 1997
Denmark 31 January 1997

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Courage Under Fire ]

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