Film Analysis - Under Fire (1983)

       This is a movie about the journalist/photographer in Nicaragua who photographs, risking his life, the scenes of civil war going on between an oppressive regime and civilian rebels. The conflict is that the protagonist photographer sympathizes with the rebels although they are supposed to be an anarchistic mob. He is upset by the soldier's cruelty toward the rebels including even women and children. Although he is a journalist, crossing the boundaries of the war zones identifying himself as a neutral observer, he decides to secretly side with the rebels.
       This particular scene is the part when he agrees to take picture of a dead rebel leader but make it seem that he is actually alive. He is tormented that as a journalist, he is supplying the media with false information. On the other hand, he is convinced that the showing the world the proof that the leader is still alive will help the rebels. In this scene, his female companion has a concerned look on her face showing that she thinks a journalist shouldn't fabricate photographs. Also, the protagonist is in the back, in the corner of the room and this shows that he is trying to avoid the situation and is apprehensive about doing this. The background in this scene is dark, evoking the feeling that something suspicious is going on. The walls are surrounding the characters hiding them from people outside. All this implies that the act of taking photographs of fabricated situations is a morally wrong, almost criminal idea for a journalist. It also shows how powerful photographs can be and how, for instance, it can impact the question of who wins the civil war. The movie stresses the power of photographs on another scene when the leaked photos of rebels shot by the protagonists are used to identify rebels among civilians and execute them. The movie tells us because photographs carry such significance, there might be huge consquences when photograph portraying mild subjectivity crosses the line and becomes a fabricated lie (even if the photgrapher did that out of good will).