72
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelA beautiful piece of new-style classical moviemaking. Everything is thought out and prepared, but it isn't explicit, it isn't labored, and it certainly isn't overcomposed.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertUnder Fire surrounds these performances with a vivid sense of place and becomes, somewhat surprisingly, one of the year's best films.
- 80Time OutTime OutA thrilling film, with a head, a heart, and muscle.
- 80Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittUnder Fire is not a gentle experience. But it offers more to think about than any other new Hollywood picture. [23 Nov 1983, p.42]
- Director Roger Spottiswoode, who edited a number of Sam Peckinpah movies, succeeds brilliantly in creating the chaotic last days of Somoza's government while at the same time incisively evaluating the moral dilemma faced by war correspondents.
- 75Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordIt's a troubling movie, and there's something old-fashioned about its mechanics as drama, but Spottiswoode forces us to look at the humanity under duress behind all those back-of-the-book war stories. That in itself is enough. [22 Oct 1983, p.D7]
- 70Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonA good, rock 'em, shock 'em political thriller, done in the best imitation Costa-Gavras style by director Roger Spottiswoode. [08 Oct 1989, p.5]
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)The Globe and Mail (Toronto)The film's dramatic and thematic ends could have been served just as well, if not better, by skipping the invention and sticking to the no less gripping figures and the no less wrenching dilemmas that history actually provided. [21 Oct 1983]
- 40The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyUnder Fire, which was written by Ron Shelton and Clayton Frohman, from a story by Mr. Frohman, means well but it is fatally confused.