Product Details

• Actors: Salome Jens, Max Cole
• Directors: Arthur Dong
• Writers: Arthur Dong, Allan Bérubé
• Producers: Arthur Dong
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: October 13, 1997
• Run Time: 72 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303937632
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,029 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

A look at the experiences of nine gay and lesbian veterans, who volunteered to fight for the country only to be later persecuted, rounded up in witch-hunts and labeled as undesirable.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How far we haven't come, December 18, 2007

By 

Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Out Under Fire (DVD)

"Coming Out Under Fire", a short but reflective documentary based on a book of the same name by the late Allan Berube, gives heed to what is still one of the most egregious governmental policies in existence today....."Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The film, where surviving members of the military discuss their service during the Second World War, is at times empathetic but often maddening. The final exchange between Senator John Warner and Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer regarding the implementation of this policy ends the film with a bang.

This is a film that offers up how little progress has been made over the years regarding gays serving in the military. As many of these veterans had to lie to avoid persecution from within the military ranks and prosecution from without, "Coming Out Under Fire" also reminds us of how gays who serve today still have to keep mum about their sexual orientation to stay in the service. It's a good and necessary film, and I highly recommend it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes funny but mostly upsetting., October 30, 2001

By 

Duane Simolke "author, The Acorn Stories, Deg... (Lubbock, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Out Under Fire [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Director Arthur Dong is perhaps best known for his documentary Licensed To Kill, in which he probed the minds of people who murder others for being gay. Though Coming Out Under Fire at least has flashes of humor, it is equally upsetting in the dark secrets that it reveals. Dong shows not only the long tradition of gays in America's military but also their tradition of serving with distinction before meeting with betrayal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WAKE UP AMERICAN MILITARY!!!!, April 22, 2010

By 

Joseph Falotico - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Coming Out Under Fire (DVD)

This documentary consists of interviews with gay and lesbian ex-soldiers in our Armed Forces, and how their sexual preferences had to be hidden to avoid being dishonorably discharged from the services. These soldiers enlisted to do what they could to help their country, which needed them. Yet their superiors and some of their comrades would easily expose them if they were found out, and would have them expelled. What a waste of expertise and experience! This way of thinking is unjust, and belongs in the same category that said black people were inferior to white people. It's downright stupid!
This film is a wake-up call for the military to open it's recruitment to all people so that it can operate at top efficiency for the protection of our country.