Sob Fogo Cerrado

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.

If you want a documentary about the Sandinista's, go watch a documentary. If you want a thrilling love-story set around a fast-paced, intelligent script about people who want to do the best they can under difficult circumstances, then this is the film for you. Good acting, superb music, a good use of locations and atmospheres. This must be one of Nolte's best performances. Of course Rafael did not exist, but this is a movie, not a portrayal of real facts. The story works perfectly in this movie, and that is what's important. If you're looking for a flick that entertains, touches you without being too sentimental, and you like some action, then Under Fire is certainly worth seeing.

Some reviewers compare this film with Oliver Stone's fine Central American film, Salvador (1986). That's a legitimate comparison, but my feeling is that films should be primarily judged on their own merits. In that sense, Under Fire succeeds superbly, not least because of the first-rate staging. The peasant favelas are real slums, desolate, degraded, and perfect backdrop for the grassroots revolution underway in 1970's Nicaragua. It's easy to see why the Sandinista revolt would succeed even against the armed might of an American sponsored tyrant (Somoza). The movie makes a point of showing ready peasant support for anti- government personnel and even non-government journalists like the Americans. However, more contrast between the despoiled favelas and Somoza's swanky uptown precincts would have been even more powerful. Still, Somoza's gilded mistress, Miss Panama, does speak volumes.

The story itself is well-woven into the larger political backdrop, no easy accomplishment. At first, the three American journalists take their new Nicaragua assignment as just another war to cover and maybe a chance to win a few more awards. Russell (Nolte), in particular, can't seem to get beyond his camera shutter. To him, the human drama unfolding might be on a planet far away, while he snaps one frame after another. But then he is a journalist, with a set of professional ethics. If he takes sides in any dispute, then his work can no longer be trusted. Same for print journalist Alex (Hackman) and interviewer Claire (Cassidy). So the conflict between natural empathy for the downtrodden and oath to the profession sets up the basic conflict. Russell, in particular, is pinned on the horns of the conflict when rebels ask him to fake a photograph of their iconic leader, Rafael. I needn't reveal how the conflict plays out, except, crucially, it does resolve in a credible manner.

The acting is also first-rate. Too bad the three principals were passed over for Oscar nominations. In my little book, Nolte particularly shines in an understated role that could easily have gone over the top. And happily Cassidy's Claire avoids any hint of glamor, yet still manages a magnetic presence. At the same time Hackman has perhaps the most difficult role. His Alex must waver between friendship with Russell and attraction to Claire, while having to choose which political side he's on. Nonetheless, he brings them off persuasively. Still, I certainly don't envy Harris' thankless role as the unscrupulous opportunist, Oates. Apparently he thinks just being an American in a Third World country excuses everything.

Note in passing, the aerial leaflet drop, the only way, I suppose, the rebels have of mass communication since the government controls the media. And shouldn't overlook the two vintage rattletraps our journalists are stuck riding in. The tin jalopies get shot, cannonaded, slammed, and still they roll over debris strewn streets like real troupers. So, hats off to Detroit's finest!

Anyway, the movie's an expertly produced thriller of some depth. Too bad it's drifted into relative obscurity now that the political fires have lessened over time. One thing for sure—I'll bet Spottiswoode's film never screened in Reagan's White House.

Nicaragua 1979 sees the rebel uprising reaching a peak and causing an inflow of foreign journalists including photojournalist Russell Price and Claire. As the conflict rages around them Russell and Claire fall in love, despite her relationship with anchorman Alex Grazier.

My plot summary of this feels a little false - it makes it sound like a romantic drama rather than a political drama. However it's closer to that than it is to being a look at the conflict in Nicaragua. The story made me think it would be a look at the conflict, but rather this is a look at the conflict through the eyes of foreigners including CIA and journalists. It's still interesting - but would have been better looking at it from the rebel's point of view - but then I guess the American audience wouldn't have been interested. The focus on the US stars makes this a drama with the war as a backdrop, this takes away from the impact of the conflict onscreen.

One of the last scenes of the films has an elderly lady talking to Claire following the death of an American journalist at the hands of the Government. Due to this death the USA has thrown their support behind the rebels and the Government has fallen. The lady essentially says that "50,000 Nicaraguans have died but it took only one American death to convince the US of the true nature of the Government here - we should have killed one a long time ago" (rough quote!). This is a good point, made in criticism of the USA's foreign policy and how they value lives of different nationalities. However this criticism can also be levelled at the film itself - it focuses on the Americans more than the Nicaraguans, the American characters are more important than the Nicaraguan characters - you can't have it both ways, you can't criticise someone else for something you're guilty of. The story is still interesting but it's so USA focused that it almost forgets the main players in the story (the rebels & the Government) and relegates them to bit parts.

Nolte is good in the lead, but I thought Joanna Cassidy was a bit outclassed by the rest of the cast. Hackman is good as always but had very little to do. Ed Harris is good, but again his character was the only soldier really given a character or a story (and of course, he's an American mercenary).

Overall an interesting story but the main point of the film (as voiced by the elderly lady) is also a criticism of the film itself. I wanted to know more about the conflict but instead knew more about the love triangle - a political drama that manages to cheapen the very political war that it sought to highlight.

"Under Fire" is a well-written, well-acted piece, showing photo-journalists operating in the milieu of insurrections in Chad, then Nicaragua. Watching Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte and Ed Harris perform together was a treat. And the writers gave them terrific lines. "This is a great war: good guys, bad guys, and lots of cheap shrimp." I especially liked when Hackman's character asked if Nolte's character had slept with Hackman's woman when their relationship hits the skids, and Nolte answers directly, "Hell no, Alex. We're friends." And you just know Nolte's character meant it, man to man. Great moment. Also appealing was the way third-world conflicts were portrayed as global brushfires; put out one here, while another flares up over there. Using the real civil war in Somoza's Nicaragua gives the film unexpected credibility. And probably in keeping with reality, Ed Harris has several memorable scenes as a pure mercenary, a globe-trotting soldier-for-hire, who shows up where the gun-battle action is. His last line is something like "See you in Laos". The beat goes on. -ejpede