Review of An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) by Forrest P — 21 Jul 2010

I didn?t fall in love with An Officer and a Gentleman, but it was still a very fine film nonetheless. I would not put it on a ?best films? list, but it has a bit to offer audiences.

First of all, I want to say that I was very much impressed with the story itself. That was something that was, fortunately, very nice about this picture. I also liked the characters. They were interesting and not cardboard cutouts that I am use to seeing.

Still, I think parts of this movie needed work. For instance, a lot of the training scenes have lost a lot of their intensity with age. Since the release of films like Full Metal Jacket, the training sequences in this film seem extremely tame, in spite of the great performance by the drill sergeant. This is one of those films that is not poorly made, but has the unfortunate factor of age working against it.

I also didn?t like a lot of the third act.

***Warning: Here There Be Spoilers***.

There are several parts of the third act that I had a lot of problems with and I want to address them now. First of all, there is a character who commits suicide after being rejected by a girl he had quit the training program for. Now, I thought the suicide scene itself was handled very well, but my problem was that the suicide itself seemed a little rash. Yes, I understand his heart was broken and that he had quit his dream for someone who didn?t want him and that he had emptied his savings account for a ring for this girl. But I would have absolutely *loved* watching him trying to bounce back from all of that. I mean, this isn?t really a huge complaint I have with the picture, but it is something I was a little disappointed with. I felt that the suicide was a little too convenient in terms of wrapping up that part of the story when the picture itself was not about the suicide.

Next, shortly after that sequence of events, Richard Gere?s character decides he wants to quit the officers? training program. The drill sergeant doesn?t like that and the two proceed to have a fight on the martial arts mats because?? Perhaps that part of the movie was so deep and provocative it went over my head entirely. But I doubt it. I kept trying to figure out what the hell that proved. Gere gets his ass kicked. Why does that mean he should stay in the program? Is the final message that violence solves all problems, especially in the military? Is the drill sergeant showing him up make him want to finish the program? Why was this part of the film done this way?

Furthermore, I hated the last moment of the film. In the last moment, Gere returns to the woman he left behind, scoops her up in his arms, and carries her out the door to the sound of her coworkers? applause. Cheesy and corny as hell. If the whole movie had been that cheesy and corny, I would not have been able to take it.

***.

But apart from that, the whole movie is *not* overly cheesy and corny, and that?s what I ended up liking about it. Albeit the last few minutes of the movie were a little much, but the rest of the film was handled very seriously and very well. I liked the characters, I really liked the story, and I thought a lot of the training sequences were more or less profound. However, as I stated earlier, the biggest fault with this film is that it has aged very, very poorly. Modern audiences might not be quite so fond of it, but they may enjoy most of it anyway.

6/10.