"under Fire"

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"I DON'T take sides, I take pictures". , says the hero of 'Under Fire', war photographer Russell Price (Nick Nolte).

He is a peeping tom, a voyeur of history not a participant in it.

The film is about what happens to his view of his own place in the world when he finds himself in civil war torn Nicaragua.

By 1979 almost the entire Nicaraguan people were in revolt against the dictatorship of the Somoza family, which had held power for nearly 50 years after grabbing it with US help in the 1930s.

The Somozas used their control of the Nicaraguan police state to treat the country as a corrupt private business concern. :9 Even the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie couldn't get their snouts in Somoza's trough, so they joined the revolution. What the Sandinistas spearheaded in 1979 was a great national revolt against a regime of stark-naked gangA scene from 'Up Front' sterism and corruption.

Price begins by taking pictures but ends by taking sides. He is repelled by the brutal defenders of the regime. He finds that his photography is not neutral when he learns that photos he has taken of Sandinistas have been used to finger them for assassination by the regime.

When he finally takes sides he puts his professional skills - and his reputation as well at the disposal of the rebels to make war propaganda for them. He fakes a photo of a dead Sandinista leader to back up the claim that he is still alive.

Price is no longer a voyeur. He says: "Once in a while one has to change history ratner than just recording it"

'Under Fire' is, of course, made according to the well-established pattern for popular adventure movies, with a love triangle and so on.

But it skilfully interweaves its fictional story of Price and two other journalists with the real events of the revolution. For example, Price's friend Alex Grozier (Gene Hackman) is shot dead by triggerhappy soldiers, and Price's photos of the event deal a blow to the international image of Somoza.

In fact trigger-happy soldiers did kill a journalist just like that in 1979 - in front of TV cameras...

People in the US and Europe who could see phots of long lines of 'native' corpses without bothering too much about it began to pay attention.

As a women says in the film after Alex Grozier has been shot: "50,000 Nicaraguans are dead: we should have shot one US journalist 50 years ago"

Thin Amaniona filma Air 1 nis Amerıcan ımn - ulected by Roger Spottiswoode who is British - takes sides with the people of Nicaragua and with the Sandinistas against Somoza. This brave stand by people who seem to be honest liberals has made it a box-office flop in Reagan's It 'will be a shame if it is a box-office flop in Britain too.