Matt Damon Holy Christ!!! - Courage Under Fire (1996) Discussion

[–] hello_vertigo 19 years ago

He was extremely thin, so thin that it made me want to cry (as a Matt Damon fan). That tiny part in the movie wasn't worth endangering his health. Poor baby...

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[–] xredgarnetx 19 years ago

The degree to which he lost weight actually took away from his last scene with Denzel. He was frankly too painful to look at. A little makeup artfully applied would have done just as well. And he lost all that weight and endangered his health for a misfire of a movie.

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] Northlite45 18 years ago

no it's not dead, and yes he looked really bad. he did it by eating 1 small meal a day and running like 5 miles a day. he says he's never really gotten over it.

there's about 20 drag queens picketing outside in support of Dennis, they are angry and fabulous!

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] GirlyBear 16 years ago

Yes, I noticed his "gauntness" as well. I thought perhaps he was just that skinny when he was a lot younger. Now I understand that was intentional!

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[–] tbeller80 16 years ago

I saw Good Will Hunting shortly after seeing this movie and I didn't realize they were the same actor until I read the credits again.

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[–] viezure2001 15 years ago

In the battle scenes he was the matt damon we all know and like, and was really surprised to see him when he met denzel's character. So, so skinny, i was actually just looking at him in awe instead of hearing what he was saying :D

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] kevryl 18 years ago

Northlite, why do you find the need to use such offensive and blasphemous language in your subject title? Would you even *think* of using the name of Muhammed in the same way? If you did you'd very soon be condemned far and wide for your insensitivity. I'm sure the administration of IMDB would very smartly delete or bleep the offensive language. So why is it OK to be so disrespectful of the Lord Jesus Christ and so insensitive to those who revere Him? Why, while all world religions are to be respected is the Christian faith to be the doormat of all who would trample it?

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[–] tpresnyc 18 years ago

Oh Good Lord... Oops, sorry.

Honestly, if he does/did exist, I doubt seriously if he's as sanctimonious as some of his followers. Chill.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Offworld_Colony 16 years ago

tosser.

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[–] jjgraywolf 13 years ago

Jesus Christ, stop your whining!

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[–] Sylvie17 18 years ago

I agree that it wasn't worth it to endanger his health for so small a role, but I was really very impressed with his acting and think he should have been nominated for an Oscar in a supporting role, although I don't know who his competition would have been that year.

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[–] Marlonius 18 years ago

I don't think he realized he was endangering his health at the time. I'm sure he also expected a better overall reception to the movie, thus in him mind making the risk more potentially worth it.

All the elements are there for a great classic Rashmon style movie, and I'm sure it looked great on paper. It fizzled a little bit and was less than the sum of its parts, but it's not like he lost 45 lb for a role in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Even though it was a small role, it got Matt Damon a lot of notice and I'm sure helped his career. I myself rented it specifically to see how thin Matt had gotten in it.

On a side note, I've heard it said he has issues to this day due to his weight loss, but I've never heard any specific health issues actually named. Can anyone elaborate?

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[–] midnight_tinted_rambler 18 years ago

i read an interview where he said that one of his glands (can't remember the specific one) was permanently damaged and he is lucky he didn't get really sick. my poor baby...

**matt damon lover**

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[–] Maniac-9 18 years ago

Without this movie the studios probably wouldn't have let him star in Good Will Hunting then there would've been no Saving Private Ryan for him and so on.

Definitely didn't go about losing the weight in the proper way, but this movie is basically what put him on the map.

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[–] NewHorizons37 17 years ago

this movie is basically what put him on the map.

Absolutely. I saw this in the theater and made a point to remember his name because he was great in this and I wanted to check him out in future films. I knew he had real potential to make it big.

As to other posters, yeah he was not wise in how he lost the weight, but I disagree with those who say he did it for "such a small" or "tiny" part. It was not THAT small, his character and his story arc is fully fleshed out, and it was very pivotal to the movie. I can see a struggling actor willing to do a lot for a part like that.

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[–] Aizyk 17 years ago

On Inside the Actor's studio, he said that he considered giving up pursuing an acting career after this film because he went to such great lengths for his part and then after the movie came out, no one in the media mentioned him or his performance. He also said that he was later trying to get cast as Private Ryan, and when he talked to Stephen Spielberg, Spielberg told him he'd seen him in CUF, thought he was good and considered him for the part before he ever found out the Damon was trying to get it, but ruled him out because he thought he was too thin. D'oh. But then when they did meet later in person Spielberg saw he wasn't actually, and the rest is history.

In my opinion, losing all that weight for his part in this movie was counter-productive because no one can appreciate a new unknown actor going to these kinds of lengths for a role unless s/he's already somewhat known in the industry. With someone like Christian Bale who did something similar, everyone was in awe right off the bat because they already knew who he was and had the context of seeing him prior.

| Fools rush in--and get all the best seats. |

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[–] snooks_md 16 years ago

If you look at him carefully throughout the movie, he's not nearly that thin during the battle scenes; he's his normal size or a little bigger. It's a radical difference, even if you weren't familiar with his appearance prior to this movie.

S.

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[–] Mr Pants 17 years ago

so why was he supposed to be so thin in the present-day scenes? lingering guilt from the incident in the gulf? really seems unnecessary, especially considering what he went through. but hey, it got him the rainmaker lead! um ...

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[–] Amarillo10 17 years ago

His character was a junkie. I just wonder what his mother thought when she saw that movie.

*Amarillo* --Euripides? Eumenides!

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[–] koffeenkreame41-1 14 years ago

I agree, he was great in here and this movie really put him on the map before The Talented Mr. Ripley, Good Will Hunting & Saving Private Ryan. I can't believe this movie wasn't bigger than it was though, great performances by Denzel, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Damon, Scott Glenn and others.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.

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[–] Calinks 14 years ago

Yea it's funny becaue when he showed up in the pharmacy I was like "Man, Matt Damon looked like one goofy mofo back then." His face just looked so weird. Then I noticed he was really skinny so I thought maybe he was just a super skinny kid back in the day.

While I was watching this movie, Good Will Hunting actually came came on the TV. I flipped there just to see what that movie was like and I saw Damon and he looked like normal Damon. Now I knew these movies were close together time wise so I suspected hey made himself skinny for the role. Then I saw him in the flashbacks and he definitely looked normal.

"Cool will get ya dead." -Former NBA Power Forward, Karl Malone

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] jellyree 11 years ago

Thank you so much for this priceless insight.

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[–] Degree7 10 years ago

Damon played a heroin addict in Courage Under Fire for which he needed to be visibly underweight. He has said of his daily routine, "I'd run six-and-a-half miles in the morning and six-and-a-half miles at night and I'd eat just chicken breast, egg whites, one baked potato a day, no butter, no salt and a lot of coffee, a lot of cigarettes. ... It was really stupid." After filming ended, Damon spent several months on medication to repair damage to his adrenal gland.

~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.

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