Under Fire

In 1979 an uprising against the regime is under way in Nicaragua. Three American journalists are in the country: a photographer, a correspondent and his former wife, a radio reporter. The photographer wants an interview with the rebel leader. He learns the man is dead, and the rebels want something from him: a faked photograph showing the leader alive. The subject is not war reporting but neutrality becoming impossible at a certain point. The photographer takes the picture and in that moment has left his profession; the film neither celebrates nor condemns the decision and shows what follows from it. The form stays close to the real events. Street fighting, crowd scenes, journalists' hotel rooms. Nick Nolte's camera determines the film's point of view and some events appear only as a photographic frame. There is a real incident underneath it: during the uprising an American television reporter was killed by soldiers in front of a camera and the footage went around the world. The film restages that directly. Shooting took place in Mexico. Nick Nolte plays the photographer, Gene Hackman the correspondent and Joanna Cassidy the radio reporter. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score with Pat Metheny on guitar. Roger Spottiswoode directs. Who it is for: viewers who like political thrillers and journalism narratives. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by American characters holding the centre; the objection is fair and the local characters stay in the background.