Courage (1986 TV Movie) User Reviews

Great drama

[martin_humble · 7/10 · 16 April 2004]

Based on a true story and what a story that is!

Sophia Loren stars as the mother in a family of four. One of her two sons are a drug addict -more and more Loren is drawn into a world completely different from what she known. Suddenly she is in the middle of the drug trade in New York. Loren acts beautifully and believable and together with a great supporting cast with actors as Hector Elizondo "Courage" comes out as a very realistic drama. Director Kagan handles the story with respect. As it is a true story it also should be this way, and in the end "Courage" is a great drama about courage, a drama about an ordinary family caught up in a grim reality.

Great acting, great story. Recommended!

A scene from this movie was shot in my house.

[ranger00116 · 8/10 · 2 May 2015]

A scene from this movie was shot in my house, It was the scene where the baby of the young drug dealer couple was killed with a shotgun in it's crib, To get revenge for a drug deal gone bad.

This scene is left out of some not full movie versions.

It did appear in the TV miniseries version in 1986.

The film makers wanted to either show the baby being killed or show the baby after it was killed ?

But the Network censored it and did not let them put that in the movie.

My house got picked just by the film makers driving down my street and seeing it and coming to the door to ask if we would do it (for $500) I think this may be the only movie with a scene in it where a baby is shot ? They paid $300 dollars to rent a Mercedes to park in the driveway during the shoot. The address of the House is 430 Alcazar Ave, Coral Gables, Florida 33134. (A suburb of Miami, Fl.)

I do not live there now, But I did from 1959 to 1991.

I can Not find any full length of this movie on line, But can fond cop's for sale.

Thomas Buyea, Miami, Fl.

[e-mail]

Excellent 1980 Cops & Drug Ring Thriller - w. a Woman in the Lead Role!

[av_m · 8/10 · 27 August 2022]

Excellent 1980 Cops & Drug Ring Thriller - w. A Woman in the Lead Role! - and what a woman!

Sophia Loren. She established her acting creds early on in Two Women - this woman is not just a pretty face, but an Italian actress easily of the professional stature of Ana Magnani.

This isn't a big budget film - but w. Loren carrying the pivotal character's role w. With an unfailing graceful gravitas, the thing rises above itself.

It's incredible that this is based on a true story - and I won't do spoilers - but it has a serious message about ordinary people victimized by the maw of international drug cartels nonetheless standing up against that nightmare - hence the story's well-deserved title 'Courage".

And although it's not a big budget extravaganza, it's has its share of very respectable cops & robbers suspense and car chase scenes, and the filming in NYC - and the Island - is quite well done, realistic but with a sheen that properly frames the various local backdrops and sets.

The other cast - most notably. Billy Dee Williams - all bring their professionalism to the table and as an ensemble work flawlessly together.

But there is no doubt that this is a Sophia Loren masterpiece - her performance is dignified, intelligent, piercing.

Bravo to all the production team; this is a good one.

Wow. What a mother does for their child is just plain heroic.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 19 November 2021]

There is something about Sophia Loren that has always stood out even in the worst of films that she has done, of which there are many. In this very well done true to life TV movie, she plays the mother of a young man addicted to cocaine, going out of her way not only to save him from the drug itself but could bring down the drug cartel who has gotten her neighborhood involved with pushers and organized crime. She is one mother that you cannot mess with even though it seems at times as if her life is threatened. Thankfully she has a devoted (if worried) husband, beautifully played by Hector Elizondo, and her son, the handsome Michael Galardi, is obviously disgusted with himself for putting his mother at risk.

From the streets of New York to Miami, this amazing drama so the courage of one woman, proving that when a mother hen like Loren sees one of her chicks in danger, she will come pecking until she is the last one standing. While there are definite implausibilities in the general script, the film which is a bit over long does move at a rapid pace, and it takes you through the steps that she goes to infiltrate her way into the drug cartel and to the lengths to which she will go. The scene with Galardi bids goodbye to his parents is painful as you see his whole spirit breaking over the harm he has caused through something beyond his control.

A great supporting cast includes such familiar actors as Ron Rifkin, Mary McDonald and Dan Heydara, with McDonnell sporting a strong accent as a contact from Texas aiding an acquaintance of Loren's. You can't help but keep your eyes on Loren, so exquisitely beautiful 25 years after winning her Oscar. It's not just her looks. It is her whole demeanor that commands your attention. Her down to earth manner and direct way of speaking makes you feel like you know her, and if not, makes you want to know her. Hector Elizondo is one of the great character actors of the past 50 years, always so likeable and here the perfect partner to a woman he obviously knows to be amazing. This is a film that touches so many emotions on many different levels, and to see a seemingly simple woman on the surface bring down some powerful criminals is gripping and emotionally raw.

made an impact on me

[lisamorandi · 10/10 · 4 December 2015]

I was a teenager in high school when this film came out. I watched it on television but, unlike the reviewer that talked about the scene of the baby being killed being cut, when I watched the film on television, they showed that scene. The movie starts out with two men getting out of a car in Miami and pulling something large out of the trunk hidden under blankets (you don't know it's a shotgun). They go into a house across the street and you hear yelling about giving them the drugs or money and one of the men stating to the other to "go get it done" and then you hear a gunshot. Then the camera goes inside and you see the parents huddled in the living room screaming and crying and they pan to the baby's room and there's a huge hole in the crib. I think this is why I remembered this movie, it was such a shocking scene, it took my breath away. It showed the true brutality of drug dealers. I vaguely remember the rest of the movie, but I do know that Sophia Lauren was excellent and brings down a huge Columbian drug lord. Obviously, if I remember it to this day, it was a good story! I thought of this movie today when we talked about a show about a Columbian drug lord story he's been following on Netflix. I'd really like to see this movie again.