Lou Diamond Phillips is the bad guy in Courage Under Fire, and I will be the first to admit that he is one mean son of a gun in a most convincing way. I wanted to shoot him myself before the movie ended.

Colonel Nat Serling (Denzel Washington) has returned from Desert Storm, but he is still fighting the war. He gave the order to fire that resulted in the death of one of his friends, Captain Tom Boylar. He wants to tell the man's parents the truth about what happened, but his chain of command has ordered him to keep quiet.

General Hershberg (Michael Moriarty) assigns Nat to investigate a case for the Medal of Honor. Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) is the first female in history to be nominated for the award for combat but was killed during that combat.

The White House has sent their man, Bruno (Bronson Pinchot) to hype the award. He intends to make the presentation to her young daughter in the White House Rose Garden. Meanwhile, crack reporter, Tony Gartner (Scott Glenn), is digging into the tank incident, and Tom's parents have heard rumors from their son's friends that he was killed by friendly fire.

Nat's wife, Meredith (Regina Taylor) is trying to be understanding and supportive, but he pulls away and turns to a bottle for comfort.

Karen was a Medevac helicopter pilot. Her chopper flew in to rescue the crew of a downed Blackhawk, but ended up crashing after coming under fire and taking out an enemy tank. The Blackhawk crew tell what they heard during the final rescue, but Karen's crew tells a different version. Somebody has to be lying, and Nat intends to find out who ... and why.

Rady (Tim Guinee) was Karen's co-pilot. He was shot in the head before the crash and woke up three days later in a hospital, so he is no help. Steve Altameyer (Seth Gilliam) is missing -- more accurately, the Army has misplaced him.

Ilario (Matt Damen), the medic, says that Karen was always brave and that the greater the pressure, the cooler she was. Yet his story about the M16 does not sound right.

Monfriez (Lou Diamond Phillips) was not a normal member of Karen's crew. He was ordered to serve as her door gunner on the flight. He accuses her of cowardice and even threatens Nat to drop the investigation, but Nat becomes obsessed with getting to the bottom of the story about Karen. The more he digs, the more adverse effects the case has on him and those people involved.

Wow! This is one heck of a story. It is a drama with intense action that keeps you in suspense. It is one tightly written piece.

The acting is fantastic. You tend to think of Meg Ryan in softer roles than this, and I wondered if she could pull off the co-pilot's description of her as "butch." She donned her toughness and played an excellent role of female chopper pilot in the Army. She was there with this performance.

Regina Taylor also did an exceptionally nice job in a most difficult role. She was so convincing that I wondered if she has ever been married to a soldier. She nailed the character big time and gave a stellar performance.

All the roles were played well, but those two stood out because they were such difficult parts.

The effects were great. The Huey crash was perfect; it looked good and was structurally truthful, just like a couple of the military training films that I watched in service. I also really liked the details when they dumped the AUX fuel out of the chopper.

The photography was excellent at all times and in all ways.

Courage Under Fire is an excellent movie. It goes above and beyond the usual and has a one-in-a-million ending that will take you by surprise.