The Bottom Line: This film is recommended for the questions about journalistic integrity that it raises, and for being an intelligently written action film with a good cast.
Russell Price (Nick Nolte) is a photographer who seems to specialize in covering third world civil wars. Not that he has a death wish, but getting a great shot can be more important than self preservation. Along with fellow reporters Alex (Gene Hackman) and Claire (Joanna Cassidy), and American mercenary Oates (Ed Harris), he journeys from Chad to Nicaragua.
It is the year 1979, and an uprising against the repressive Somoza regime is developing in that small Central American nation. Somoza (Rene Enriquez) is backed with U.S. military aid, but is slowly losing the war to leftist Sandinista guerillas.
Claire has been 'dating' Alex, who leaves for New York with dreams of becoming an anchorman. Russell and Claire begin a relationship, with Russell soon adopting her sympathetic attitude towards the Sandinistas. He compromises his journalistic integrity to suit their cause, which puts him in peril of Somoza's trigger happy soldiers. (An American journalist, Bill Stewart, was actually killed by Nicaraguan soldiers during the 1979 revolution).
The most impressive thing about Under Fire isn't the high quality of the cast, but how credible the sets and locations are. Web research could not confirm exactly where Under Fire was filmed. But it looks like it was in Central America, with largely Latin American extras.
The poverty of the small villages, with their shacks and war-torn streets, is contrasted with the dissipated, leisurely life of the wealthy elite in the capital city, Managua. The government soldiers look and act like soldiers, while the guerillas seem only slightly romanticized (several are attractive women, all are just and courageous).
The journalists have to resolve their conflict between objectivity and morality. Do they evenly and accurately report whatever they see, or should they take sides when confronted with evil and injustice? There's no such conflict for Oates, a mercenary who dispassionately kills for whichever side is paying him.
Holly Palance has a small role as a journalist. She is a daughter of Jack Palance, and was also the wife of the director, Roger Spottiswoode.
Jerry Goldsmith received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. It was the only Academy Award nomination for Under Fire. Goldsmith has received a total of eighteen Oscar nominations during his long career. (75/100)
Gene Hackman and Nick Nolte deliver tour-de-force performances in this riveting "jigsaw puzzle" (Los Angeles Times) "that triumphantly combines politi...More at Walmart
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