Courage Under Fire (1996)


Denzel Washington       Nat Serling
Meg Ryan                Karen Walden
Lou Diamond Phillips    Monfriez
Michael Moriarty        General Hershberg
Matt Damon              Ilario
Bronson Pinchot         Bruno
Seth Gilliam            Altameyer
Regina Taylor           Meredith Serling
Zeljko Ivanek           Banacek
Scott Glenn             Tony Gartner
Tim Guinee              Rady
Tim Ransom              Boylar
Sean Astin              Patella
Armand Darrius          Robins
Mark Adair-Rios (II)    Bobcat 5
Ned Vaughn              Chelli
Manny Perez             Jenkins
David McSwain           Egan
Sean Patrick Thomas     Thompson
Ken Jenkins             Joel Walden
Kathleen Widdoes        Geraldine Walden
Christina Stojanovich   Anne Marie Walden
Lucky Luciano           Nathan Serling Jr
Erica C. Newman         Joleen Serling
Jamal A. Mays           Brian Serling
Ashlee Jordan Pryor     Josie Serling

Directed by:            Edward Zwick, Dan Lerner
Produced by:            Debra Martin Chase, John Davis, Joseph M. Singer


While serving in the Persian Gulf at Al Bathra, Lt. Colonel Nathanial Serling gives the order to fire at what 
he believes is an enemy T-54 tank and is horrified to learn that he's destroyed one of his own tanks, killing 
several of Serling's own men. As the military conducts a hushed investigation into this incident of "friendly 
fire" Serling is reassigned to a job in Awards and Decorations at the Pentagon and ordered to review 
Capt. Karen Walden's candidacy for a Medal of Honor, to be awarded to the Medevac pilot for her "courage under 
fire." The honor, unhappily, is to be posthumous. Expected to expedite the inquiry and rubber-stamp the approval 
for the Medal, Serling instead finds himself unavoidably drawn into her crew's conflicting stories regarding 
Walden's actions during a rescue mission. Serling begins to suspect a much more complicated tale, perhaps even 
a cover-up. In a desperate race against time, he must not only find the truth, but somehow manage to preserve 
his honor.

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The pilot of a rescue copter, Captain Karen Walden, died shortly before her helicopter crew was rescued after 
it crashed in Desert Storm. It first appears that she made a spectacular rescue of a downed helicopter crew, 
then held her own crew together to fight off the Iraqis after her copter crashed. LT Colonel Serling, who is 
struggling with his own demons from Desert Storm is assigned to investigate and award her the Medal of Honor. 
But some conflicting accounts from her crew and soldiers in the area, cause him to be question whether she 
deserves it.

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This film is a series of flashbacks, in which Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling attemps to prove that 
Captain Karen Walden deserves to be the first woman ever to win the Medal of Honor.