AllMovie

Over the course of the Twentieth Century and into the Twenty-First, wartime correspondence evolved into one of the deadly and dangerous occupations in the contemporary world, right up there with front-line conflict itself. In fact, average casualty rates rose with each passing decade, from two reporters slain in all of World War I (for example) to nearly one journalist eliminated every week in the Afghan and Iraqi Wars. As directed by Martyn Burke, the documentary Under Fire constitutes something of an oral history - a woven-together tapestry of firsthand recollections, biographical profiles of various correspondents and combat footage collectively designed to bring across the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the subjects with unprecedented immediacy. Participants include reporters from the Associated Press, the New York Times, the BBC and other sources; assisting with this production was Anthony Feinstein, a psychiatrist who works with journalists on a regular basis to heal wartime traumas.