Under Fire (1983)
 


R,2hrs 8min
Genre:Action
Released: January 1, 1983
Director:Roger Spottiswoode
Distributor:MGM
 
Starring:
Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy
 
Synopsis
This gripping, emotional story of a roving photographer's transformation
from a neutral artist with a camera to an involved human rights activist
with a camera begins in Chad, travels to Nicaragua in the early 1980s,
and ends when the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza takes off for the palm
trees and beaches of Florida. Nick Nolte brilliantly interprets his role as
the photographer Russell Price, and Joanna Cassidy is Claire, the radio
journalist he meets while in Chad, along with her lover, Time Magazine
reporter Alex (Gene Hackman), who ends up opting for a plush job as a
TV anchorman and a quiet life on Long Island. When Alex leaves, Claire
heads off to the next hot spot, Nicaragua, and Russell decides to tag along --
not because he is that interested in Nicaragua, but because he is interested
in Claire. Once in the war-torn, Central American country, it does not take
Russell long to see the vast difference between the corrupt, U.S.-backed
dictatorship and the struggling guerrilla forces who have been fighting for a
decade already. As his eyes are opened, he and Claire decide to go along
with the rebels and film their fighting behind the lines. During one battle, the
much-venerated rebel leader is shot dead, and Russell reluctantly agrees to
fake a photo of the man as though he were still living, so as not to demoralize
the army that looks up to him for leadership. The photo appears in the news
around the world and causes such a furor that Alex shows up to demand an
interview with the leader for national American television. It is on the way to
this supposed interview that Alex leaves the car for a moment and is sense
essly shot and killed by a government soldier, the whole episode filmed for
the world by Russell's camera. This outrage (which actually occurred when
journalist Bill Stewart was inhumanly shot by a Somoza soldier in full view
of the video camera) soon makes global news and helps to hasten the overthrow
of the corrupt dictatorship. Meanwhile, Russell has new issues to consider once
his camera has become an "active" and not a "passive" observer of political unrest.
René Enriquéz who plays the dictator Somoza in this film is a native Nicaraguan,
related to a newspaper reporter killed by Somoza's government.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide


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