SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

sledhead535 I worked in Nicaragua from February, 1971 to May, 1979. I also owned an Island off the Southeast Coast of Nicaragua near Monkey Point.The "popular" view by most filmmakers and "news people" of the time, viewed President Somoza as an evil man. What was thought to be a "saving Grace" for Nicaragua was a new Government.What everyone there GOT was a Socialist/Communist takeover fueled by the Left and (then) President- Jimmy Carter, who even blackmailed Israel into not helping the Contras and President Somoza.I always fume when I see "stories' of people and places written by people who were NEVER THERE. I WAS THERE. I SAW it FIRST HAND.President Somoza wasn't perfect. No one IS. But what they got was FAR WORSE. Nicaragua has been in my Family since 1928, when my Father and the U.S. Marines went there to help prevent Augusto Sandino from taking the country. My Association with my beloved Nicaragua ended in 1995.

Mr-Fusion "Under Fire" is a war movie, but the real tension doesn't come until the third act. Right in the middle of a lull, BAM! a major character is killed. Which is actually more sad than suspenseful, even though it happens in an action scene. I just thought that was unusual. Most of the gunfire up until that point is just used to set the atmosphere (and the movie does a great job of that), and lay out thee conditions of the environment . . . which are less than ideal,to say the least.Ultimately, this is a movie that rests on its three central characters (and the solid casting choices thereof). They do a great job conveying the cynicism of news people who deal in this bloodshed for a living.6/10

higherall7 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.

jhnstnb This is Nick Nolte at his best in a first rate romantic thriller. Set in Nicaragua but filmed in Mexico, Under Fire captures the look and feel of revolutionary Central America, easily drawing the viewer into the horror of life under the Somosa puppet regime. If you liked "Under Fire" check-out "Salvador" or "Romero" for the same gritty realism -- these are 3-movies that cause one to think and to question.