Rescue Under Fire [Eureka! Masters of Cinema] (DVD Review)
The crew of a medical helicopter crashes in Afghanistan whilst attempting to assist an ambushed patrol of Spanish and American troops. The Spanish army has only one night to organize the rescue of the crew and injured, but what seems routine turns into hell once they receive the order to rescue the helicopter as well. Things only get worse when during the night a huge concentration of insurgents begin surrounding them. The debut feature from director Adolfo Martínez, a multi-award winning writer who has worked behind the scenes on numerous Hollywood blockbusters including Oblivion and Walt Disney s 2016 smash hit, The Jungle Book. Rescue Under Fire is an incredibly tense and exciting action thriller that should not be missed.
Film 
Rescue Under Fire (Zona Hostil) is the Spanish film adaptation of true events that occurred in Afghanistan, when a medical helicopter crashes during an attempt to rescue injured American soldiers. The stakes are high as an operation is put into place in order for a rescue attempt of all those involved. To make matters even more complicated, orders are given to extract the grounded helicopter, so as to not leave valuable intelligence behind.
I had no idea that Rescue Under Fire even existed, by that title, or its original Spanish language title of Zona Hostil. I was familiar with Adriana Gil (Appaloosa), however, as she plays one of the military officers that are part of the downed crew.
The film was directed by Adolfo Martinez, making his feature film debut, and it’s a pretty entertaining debut. The production is outstanding, as are the special effects, practical, CGI, and otherwise. The film is not “low budget” by any stretch of the imagination.
Rescue Under Fire handles the setbacks of a Spanish military unit in hostile territory nicely and doesn’t mince words or actions. One sees these types of films on a regular basis and gets a tad bit familiar. Well, here we see the horrors of war through the eyes of the Spanish military and they went through in Afghanistan. It wasn’t pretty.
Rescue Under Fire is a Spanish language film and the DVD contains English subtitles for those that do not speak or understand the Spanish language. I do speak Spanish, so I took the subtitles right off. As epic in content as the film is, it doesn’t run about 88 minutes without credits and a bit over an hour and half with. There’s plenty of material to sink your teeth into, as the film is a gritty portrayal of war through a different set of eyes. Rescue Under Fire is recommended.
Video
Encoding: MPEG-2
Resolution: 480p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Clarity/Detail:
Depth: I really do like it when a DVD comes my way that features exceptional video quality – it says to me that DVD is far from dead. Rescue Under Fire looks fantastic on DVD.
Black Levels: Black levels had minimal amounts of crush during night time scenes, but please remember that this is a DVD release and NOT the Blu-ray version.
Color Reproduction: The color palette varied from muted to vibrant to natural.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones were accurate – everyone looked nice and natural outside of illness or catastrophic injury.
Noise/Artifacts: The only dirt artifacts I noticed was that of the actual dirt during the scenes featuring sand and desert.
Audio
Audio Format(s): Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English
Dynamics: Like the video presentation before it, the audio presentation continues to highlight what the DVD format can still bring to the table. The Spanish DD 5.1 track is reference and features many scenes of peril along with some dynamic scenes of air vehicles taking off, landing, and crashing into the ground.
Low Frequency Extension: The LFE subwoofer channel is aggressive and enhances the action scenes quite nicely – along with the scenes featuring helicopters and what not.
Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels produce some great ambient effects along with gunfire and surface-to-air fire during various scenes in the film.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels were nice and accurate – the film is in Spanish, with a few scenes in English and all dialogue was crystal clear and free of distortion and clipping.
Extras 
The extras are non-existent on this DVD release. We only get a theatrical trailer.
- Trailer
Summary
Rescue Under Fire is a valid and intense entry into films focusing on the war in Afghanistan from the point of view of the Spanish military. Nowadays, we only see the U.S.’s involvement in the war efforts, but to see a Spanish film on the matter is almost refreshing, because it shakes up complacency. The DVD release from Eureka! Masters of Cinema is a relatively bare-bones release but features fantastic video and reference audio. Please keep in mind that this DVD is Region B locked and a region-free DVD/Blu-ray player will be needed for proper playback.
Rescue Under Fire is now available on DVD in the UK!
ORDER NOW!
