There is a lot that a person can learn from Courage Under Fire. Courage Under Fire is a movie that was set during the Persian Gulf War. This war was from 1980 until President George W. Bush called for a cease fire on February 28, 1991. During this war the Americans went to Iraq to fight the war and a lot of them didn't return. This movie is based on a true story about the first woman to receive a war medal.
One of the views this movie shows is the struggles of soldiers not only during the war, but also after the war when they have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). This was shown thorough many characters, including the main character Nat Sterling. During the war, Sterling and his men were under attack. It was night time and they couldn't tell which tanks were the Iraqis and which were not. Sterling sent fire on one of his own tanks and killed some of the members of his crew, including one of his closest friends Boylar. Nat struggles with PTSD after he gets back from the war and ends up having an alcohol addiction. This is very common for a lot of US soldiers that have been in traumatic war situations, so this was portrayed accurately in the movie.
Another view that is shown in the movie is that of women's roles in the military. Women's roles i the military were rare. The textbook says that during the Persian Gulf War, only about 10% of american troops were women. This was shown through another main character, Karen Walden. Walden was a military captain. She was one of the highest ranked soldiers in her class and being a woman, she had to work hard to earn the respect of her fellow men soldiers. She was on the Desert Storm Mission when they rescued another military crew from being killed by the Iraqis. Unfortunately, this led to her eventual death but there was more to the story. Even though the US military had more advanced weaponry, our troops still needed to evacuate, but Karen did not get evacuated. One of her men turned his back on her and she did not make it out of Iraq. She was then awarded for her combat and bravery on the battlefield after her death, being the first woman to receive this honor. Her character was based on a woman named Mary Walker Edwards. She was the first woman to receive a military medal. Though she did not receive it for combat, the NY times said she received it for meritorious service.
Though this film did a good job in portraying the US History, there were a couple things that it did leave out. If someone were to watch this movie looking for historical facts about the Gulf War, they would get an idea but most likely not fully understand what got the US into the Gulf War. The textbook says the American's interest in oil supply led to the beginning of the war in the Persian Gulf in the early 1990's. 10 years before to this, in September of 1980, Iran was attacked by Iraq. This led to many casualties throughout this war both between Iran and Iraq and the war with us involved. The film, though is accurate, started with a scene of the war so it left out the important information of what led to the spark of the war.
Another part of history that was left out was the information about the Middle East military. The film is mainly focused on the US troops and perspective of the war so it rarely shows any context about the war that includes Iraq. One of the details that was left out was the Middle East military leader, Hussein. Hussein was the one who started the Persian Gulf war when he ordered Iraq soldiers to expand both Iraq and its oil supply. This is when the US got involved. President Bush called for Iraq to remove themselves from Kuwait and Hussein refused. This, in turn, led to the US entering the war with troops in Iraq. The movie shows our troops in Kuwait and the result of the war, the only information that was left out here was the background of how the war started and how the US got involved.
I think that this film should've included more background information about the war. I think that the historical information about how the war was started and how the US entered the war is important information that should be included. One way this information could be included is to insert it at the beginning of the movie before the war scene. This would make the information in the scenes chronological. Another way to include this information is to put flashbacks progressively throughout the movie about how the war was started and/or our involvement. Though this would not be chronological, it would still effectively get the point across.
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