Review of Under Fire (1983) by Erwin F — 25 Nov 2010

"This wasn't their war but it was their story...and they wouldn't let it go!".

"Dateline: Central America. The First Casualty of War is the Truth.".

Hackman and Nolte are great together, and Ed Harris has a nice supporting role.

[first lines].

Russell Price: Can I get a ride?

Claire: You're going to love this war...

Russell Price: Hmmm.

Claire: Good guys, bad guys and cheap shrimp.

Claire: Did you dream about Miss Panama last night?

Russell Price: No, I dreamed about you.

Claire: Have a good time?

Russell Price: Yeah, and you did too!

Oates: How d'ya like Nicaragua?

Russell Price: It's beautiful.

Oates: Yeah, it's a shitload of Greasers though, you know.

Russell Price: Pardon my French, but who's fucking side are you on?

Marcel Jazy: I work for everyone.

Russell Price: That's a great job!

Russell Price: [In Spanish] Do you know who controls this area?

Sandinista with radio: [In Spanish] Who knows?

Claire: You chose the wrong side.

Marcel Jazy: In twenty years we shall know who's right.

Marcel Jazy: I like you people, but you are sentimental shits! You fall in love with the poets; the poets fall in love with the Marxists; the Marxists fall in love with themselves. The country falls in love with the rhetoric, and in the end we are stuck with tyrants.

Woman in refugee camp: [looking at picture of dead Alex Grazier on TV] Did you know the man who was killed?

Claire: [she nods 'yes'].

Woman in refugee camp: Fifty thousand Nicaraguans have died and now a Yankee. Perhaps now America will be outraged at what has happened here.

Claire: Perhaps they will.

Woman in refugee camp: Maybe we should have killed an American journalist fifty years ago.

Russell Price: [At the rebels victory parade] What the hell are you doin' here?

Oates: It's a free country. I mean... it's free now anyway.

Oates: [Drinking from a cup] Nica libre - rum and coke and no ice. You want some?

Oates: [Price ignores him and Oates looks mildly concerned] You weren't gonna turn me in, are you?

Oates: [Price walks away without a word and Oates smiles and shouts] See ya in Thailand!

[last lines].

Claire: Do you think we fell in love with too much?

Russell Price: I'd do it again.