Product Details

• Actors: Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, Alma Martínez
• Format: Color, EP, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Good Times Video
• VHS Release Date: May 15, 2001
• Run Time: 128 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303471641
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,923 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Under Fire is a savvy political thriller of journalists in war-torn Nicaragua circa 1979. Clayton Frohman and Ron Shelton's (Bull Durham) script follows ace photojournalist Russell Price (Nick Nolte, in a key marquee performance) from the jungles of Africa to the Central American boiling point. Along with the usual band of fellow journalists, Price finds himself involved in a love triangle with Claire (Joanna Cassidy in her best role) and Alex Grazier (Gene Hackman, perfect again), who believes he's one career-making story from a lofty news anchor position. In Nicaragua, Price finds his own deadly mission: to photograph an unknown rebel leader.

Although the setup is traditional, Roger Spottiswoode's film feels as alive and vital as the best of the genre. Showing his ambiguity for the lives he shoots, Price is just as friendly with the impoverished in Africa as with an icy mercenary, Oates (Ed Harris in a role the polar opposite of his breakthrough performance in The Right Stuff the same year). On one level, Oates and Price are simply Americans doing their jobs in a foreign land. But soon Price has a change of heart. Blessed by a splendid final-act action sequence that is unforced and emotionally charged, the film is stuffed with color and energy, a good dose of which is supplied by Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score. --Doug Thomas

From the back cover

What happens when journalist step over the line of professional detachment an become personally involved in the stories they are covering? That's the question at the heart of this highly acclaimed political thriller. Nicaragua, 1979. The streets are filled with the violence of the people's revolution. Russel Price (Nick Nolte) is caught in crossfire and forced to flee with the people, the Sandinistas. Caught up in the emotions of war, Price agrees to help the rebels by staging a photo of their dead leader to make him look alive. It is a decision with far-reaching and ultimately devastating results. With an all-star cast that includes Oscar-winner Gene Hackman ("Unforgiven"), Ed Harris, and Joanna Cassidy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking look at war, February 17, 2003

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under Fire (DVD)

This flick should have won a lot of oscars - for screenplay, direction, acting, cinematography and music. Nick Nolte, Joanna Cassidy and Gene Hackman are riveting as war zone journalists; Ed Harris plays a mercenary soldier just right, with hedonistic aplomb.

One interesting aspect that runs through the film is how multi-national corporations profit no matter who wins at war; they'll always be there reaping profits. Another long thread running through the film is how American foreign policy is designed to broaden and protect OUR interests without taking into wider consideration the impact we have on the citizens of other countries, particularly the developing countries or those nations governed by unpopular dictatorships.

I saw this flick 20 years ago and it's stayed with me ever since, the mark of a good movie. This film is what propelled me to earn degrees in international relations and journalism. Most films these days are for teenagers, but not this one. It's complex and thought-provoking and entertaining throughout. I want my wife to see it.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking sides, October 29, 2005

By 

Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Under Fire (DVD)

Under Fire is one of the few mainstream American `political' movies to emerge from the studio system, but along with Missing it's probably the best. On one level it grafts a traditional romantic triangle onto its story of American war correspondents in Nicaragua gradually finding themselves drawn to taking sides instead of taking pictures, but at least it's a convincingly grown-up relationship that allows Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and a never better Joanna Cassidy to really shine. It's a shame that Cassidy never got more opportunities like this: a last-minute replacement for Julie Christie, she's extraordinarily good here. The film also boasts an impressive supporting cast, with a star-making turn from Ed Harris as an amiable but deadly mercenary a standout, although Jean-Louis Tritignant's deceptively unsubtle CIA man gives him a run for his money (not so much for his performance - his English was non-existent and it's obvious he's learned his lines phonetically - but because he has most of the film's best dialog). Extremely well directed by Roger Spottiswoode with a promise he never really fulfilled, it's an impressive albeit partisan portrait of a country decaying in the last stages of revolution and also boasts what is possibly Jerry Goldsmith's finest score (which is saying quite something). Impressive stuff, but it's a shame that so little effort has gone into the DVD - the film is more than worthy of a special edition.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated, underviewed, Under Fire, April 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (memphis, Tn) - See all my reviews

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

Can't believe there isn't a single user review of Under Fire, one of the best ever combos of political intrigue, action, thought, and sensuality. Amazing performances--Nolte fans should consider this a must see. And Joanna Cassiday is on fire, brilliant, incredibly sexy...sad that she has done so little since then. The setting and theme remain all too topical as we continue to get ourselves involved in countries whose cultures we understand not one whit. Do see this movie, please.