This intriguing drama features an excellent performance from Denzel Washington as a troubled lieutenant colonel who is called upon by the Pentagon to investigate an accident during the 1991 Gulf War in which helicopter pilot Meg Ryan (well cast against type) was killed.
This intriguing drama features an excellent performance from Denzel Washington as a troubled lieutenant colonel who is called upon by the Pentagon to investigate an accident during the 1991 Gulf War in which helicopter pilot Meg Ryan (well cast against type) was killed. His enquiries are supposed to confirm that Ryan should receive a posthumous Medal of Honor but, as he interviews her colleagues, including a venemous Lou Diamond Phillips and a pre-stardom Matt Damon, he begins to discover that the truth is not so clear-cut, which is tricky since he has a murky combat incident of his own still playing on his conscience... Part action adventure, part detective story, this is a first-class movie puzzle and, though the tidy ending is a bit of a let down, along the way the conflicting stories are told to compelling effect.
