Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) used to be one of the best combat commanders on the field. That is, until he made the call to fire on a tank that seemed to be shooting at them...and it turned out to be one of their own. Now he must explain to the parents of his best friend how their son died in combat while his orders make it very clear he cannot tell them how he died, and certainly can't tell them that he, Serling, made the call that killed him.

Now the war is over and Lt. Colonel Serling has been taken out of the field and put behind a desk. He is to help with investigations into people the army feels are deserving of medals of valor. Serling draws the file of one Captain Walden that he is to investigate. That is, one Captain Karen Emma Walden (Meg Ryan) who died in combat.

Serling interviews Walden's parents and briefly meets her young daughter, but when he gets to the men under her command things start to go wrong. These men are a complete wreck...a couple dying, a couple AWOL, and each one's story is different. What was supposed to be a cut-and-dry investigation turns into a sinister and dangerous mission to discover what circumstances really surrounded Captain Walden's death.

This film is rather different from most other war movies. We go from the present investigation, into flashbacks about Captain Walden and back again repeatedly throughout the film. Each flashback covers the same space of time, but is each individual's story of the events. Some flashbacks are fairly obviously skewed, others you just can't tell, but each flashback reveals just a tiny bit more about actual events.

This is a movie you really have to watch closely, and the first time I watched it I had no idea how it would end. At the end we also get to see the conclusion of the investigation into Lt. Colonel Serling's conduct on the night of his own tragedy. Since that first time I have purchased this film on DVD and watched it countless times over and have yet to tire of it.

As for the cast, you know the two main characters (and if you've never seen either of them act before you're really missing something), but who do we have to work alongside these two very big names? Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Damon, Michael Moriarty, Scott Glenn, Tim Guinee, Sean Astin, just to name a few. The acting throughout this movie is superb and thoroughly convincing as one would expect from such talented and experienced actors.

There are a couple of factual errors that most people unaffiliated with the US armed forces will not catch regarding ceremony protocol, flight formations, insignia, etc. that seems like they could have easily been fixed, but I suppose the producers didn't think them important enough to change.

The visuals in this movie were GREAT! The biggest special effects...lots of explosions. We love explosions. We get to see a car decimated by a train, a tank blown to bits, the use of large quantities of napalm, and so on. However, the pacing of this particular movie does detract from a possible classification of an action movie. Most action enthusiasts want to see fighting, explosions, shooting, high-speed chases, and whatever else in non-stop sequence from beginning to end and this movie just doesn't have that. What we have here is mostly a drama with some elements of a good action flick thrown into the mix.

I'm told this movie is based on a book, I haven't read that yet but then again the book is almost always better than the movie, so I'm glad I found the movie first so I can enjoy it in its own right. In short, this is a great film to watch after small people who aren't supposed to be exposed to violence or foul language have gone off to bed.

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older