Under Fire essentially is a gritty and tense thriller and explores the unsafe world of drug enforcement along the Mexican border. The movie begins as an apparently normal drug transaction, but soon turns into a life-and-death game of lies and betrayal. The sudden exposure of the badges of Griff and Abbott, who are FBI and DEA agents respectively, is an interesting element of irony and intricacy since two undercover members of different agencies find themselves investigating the same case. This twist does not only increase the tension but it also shows the anarchy and perplexity that can be a big part of covert operations in a perfidious world.
The film is striking with its starkness and direct sunlight on the desolate borderlands, as it has a visual quality that draws the viewers to the dangerous setting. The stand off, combined with sniper ambush, provides pulse-thumping scenes that leave the viewers in suspense. Sprouse and Gooding in their respective roles are both gritty and believable and both acts reflect the relationship between their characters of reserved trust and subtextual suspicion. The direction is fluent and creates balance between action and character development, unveiling the individual cost and ethical ambivalence of law enforcement officers in a grey world of crime and betrayal.
The strongest theme that seemingly resonated was that the film brought up the theme of distrust and the need to collaborate in a risky environment. The way the characters are led through a path of suspicion to an unwilling alliance emphasizes on the theme of loyalty, integrity and how right and wrong are often mixed up. I found myself thinking about the danger of the undercover job and the role of trust in any life or death situation after reading the story. On the whole, the film Under Fire is a tense and visceral thriller, which highlights how sometimes survival is a challenge of going beyond internal segments to confront external foes.
