An Officer and a Gentleman

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source: An Officer and a Gentleman

First, there is not, and never was, an Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) in Washington state. I would assume it was used because the true locale for AOCS, Pensacola, FL, wasn't suitable for some reason. Officer candidates going to AOCS already have their degrees and are undergoing training, physical and educational, to earn their commission. No, it's not four years like the Naval Academy, but then again, it's not four years of hell at the Academy, as another reviewer attempted to posit. Any officer commissioned through AOCS is an officer just like an academy grad and both, ultimately, can end up with regular commissions vice reserve commissions. Next, the training at AOCS was fairly accurately portrayed in the movie. Lots of running, swimming, academics, inspections, etc. all intended to result in the individual becoming part of a team. Another reviewer, obviously not a Republican (LOL), detests this movie just because of his perception that it endorsed the philosophy of the Reagan years. Utter balderdash, of course. What this movie portrays, again fairly accurately, is the growth of a loner into someone who realizes, as Spock so eloquently stated in one of the Star Trek movies, "(t)he needs of the many outweigh the needs, or the wants, of the one or the few." Mayo learns to be part of a team; he learns to care for others and cease being a "user" of people in his life...an example he learned from his father. The terminology, during the 80s when I went through AOCS, was still DOR..."Drop On Request." It was an "out" exercised by very few people, mostly because those of us in AOCS were already motivated to come into the Navy and specifically into Naval Aviation. The rigors, as stated previously, are presented fairly accurately although a little melodramatic in places, e.g., the altitude chamber. Never in all my years in the Navy did I see anyone "freak" out in the chamber, which is a required test, along with swim quals, every four years to remain qualified to fly. The legend of the "Pensacola Debs" was presented to us early on in AOCS. Yes, there are stories, many of them true, of men meeting their wives while going through training in Penasacola, but I'd wager there's not a higher incidence in P'cola than there is at any military base or college town for that matter. Odd, but you put men and women in the same room and some will pair off, and some will marry and remain together forever. The bar in the film, TJ's, was based on a bar in Penascola named Trader Jon's. Trader had a running deal that if you caught him wearing matching socks, you'd get some prize...can't remember if it was money or drinks. Let's just say, he never paid off as far as I know. Trader died a few years back, but I'm pretty sure some of the stuff from his bar is probably at the Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola. The Drill Instructor portrayal by Louis Gossett is VERY true to life! While they cussed us, screamed at us, pushed us physically and looked for what would "trip" us up, they also, in retrospect, wanted us to succeed. One thing they never did, and would have been severely disciplined for, was hit us, so the fight scene, while improbable, works in the movie. PTing us into the ground, though...you bet they did! This movie works for me because I lived the life both during the AOCS part and during a career in the Navy in aviation. The portrayals are pretty much spot-on and believable. Sure there's dramatic license, but there is in any movie! Anyone who believes Full Metal Jacket tells it "like it is" is delusional; there's plenty of dramatic license there, too. Relax, enjoy the movie. It's about personal growth, love, and sacrifice; all in all good things. Not the best movie ever made, but certainly not the worst!

Let me preface this with a statement about myself, for me, it's really difficult to like a romantic movie because I cant enjoy it unless it feels real to me, and making fake love seem real isn't easy. However the reason the love in this movie doesn't feel real to me isn't because the acting is bad or because there's just no chemistry between the two main lovers, Richard Gere and Debra Winger, the issue is that this entire movie is just a gigantic pizza which is 80% cheesiness and 20% movie. The movie only ever manages to have one genuinely good part, the climax, when David Keith offs himself in a motel room with a belt in the shower, something truly sad and something that made me feel a connection to his character and disdain for his ex-lover who had pushed him off the edge. Shortly after however it seems like the movie just forgets this whole entire incident with little collateral damage beyond Gere mouthing off to the gunnery sergeant and having a grudge match that leads to (not even joking) Gere getting kicked in the balls and lying down in the fetal position after him and Gossett exchange a few pseudo karate kicks. Its a shame too, mostly because Gere's character could have been much more interesting, what with his background being raised by his alcoholic father in the Philippines and ports around the world, but the movie seems all to eager to move past that and just get to the part where he's a nice guy and marries the girl. Really he's only ever a jerk in the beginning and his jerkiness is only ever mildly apparent. yet they still try to make him seem like some disturbed rebel when the only edgy stuff he does is karate, riding motorcycles, not talking about feelings, and having a stash of boots and belt buckles he fenced off to his bunk mates, a kind of ridiculous plot point which leads to him and the sergeant having beef, but what was his purpose in doing it anyways? did he need money? did he just want to be edgy? did the screenwriter just want him to be edgy? The worst part is the end, if this were a cheese pizza the last slice would literally just be a melted piece of a cheese wheel, of course he commits to Winger and goes to her upon his graduation and lifts her up in the air joyously in love a mere 20 or so minutes after his closest friends suicide, and the credits roll leaving me, the audience, wondering where the last two hours of my life went with nothing to show for it but the memory of a crappy cheese pizza of a movie without a single pepperoni or topping in sight. smh 4/10

Zack Mayo, after years of being shunted around with his woman chasing, alcoholic naval father, decides to up sticks and join the navy himself. He plans to fly jets and enrols at a tough Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School. Very much a loner and used to doing things his own way, Zack must tow the line if he is to succeed. Forming friendships and taking on a romance with a local girl, he may just make the grade. But he has to convince not only his tough no nonsense drill instructor, but also himself. An Officer And A Gentleman has been bogged down over the years by being labelled as a chick flick, a film they say, that is for the soggy handkerchief brigade. Not so say I. Yes love is a critical strand here, not only finding it after years of being closed off from it, but also to keep it after seizing the day. But it's as much a film about determination as it is about conquering love, in finding strengths from within to achieve ones goals against seemingly badly stacked odds. It really is a film that essays that triumph of the will spirit so lacking in many similar pictures that followed this 1982 piece. There are some incredibly great sequences here, chiefly during the training programme, from Mayo's continuing conflict with Sgt Foley, to a devastating turn of events with a friendship. This film royally packs an emotional punch. The cast are uniformly excellent, Richard Gere as Mayo is pitch perfect and it pays to notice that he was a 32 year old man playing an early 20s rookie, it's a testament to his undervalued ability that nobody noticed. Debra Winger was nominated for a Best Actress Award for her portrayal as Mayo's love interest, Paula Pokrifki. It's believed that Gere and herself didn't get on off screen, it isn't noticeable, though, because the chemistry sizzles and the resulting end product is one of a joyous returns. Honours have to go to Louis Gossett Jr., though, rightly winning the Best Supporting Actor Award, his performance as instructor Sgt Foley is towering and one of the best of the 1980s. David Keith and Lisa Eilbacher also turn in strong performances, and Taylor Hackford's direction is smooth and without intrusion. The involving screenplay and tidy editing are also noteworthy, and the theme song "Up where We Belong" took home the gong for Best Original Song. Some critics have called the film sexist, oh come off it people! It may come as a shock to them but a lot of women do actually want to be carried off by some dashing hunk, similarly, a lot of us men are more than willing to be the ones carrying the maiden! And lest we forget that the characterisations here carry much depth. 9/10

One of the big hits of 1982 offers a perfect example of the artfully packaged hokum passing for entertainment in Hollywood at the time. The story supposedly relates the triumph and transfiguration of white trash Richard Gere into the naval aviator of the film's title, following his introduction to the usual hazards of cadet life: punishing training exercises, antagonistic drill sergeants, conniving debutantes, and so forth. Debra Winger is one of the latter, and the uncomplicated blue-collar appeal of her character helps to alleviate the often tortured exposition of the hero's rite of passage. The film's most obvious shortcoming is its unfocused script (which needs to develop a second, parallel love story to throw the first into relief), followed by Richard Gere's total inability to appear sensitive or insecure. The enormous success of the movie can be traced to the marketing skills of its producers, who wisely sold it as a slice of glossy, inspirational junk food. Enjoy it as such, but don't expect the memory to linger.

Taylor Hackford's "An Officer and a Gentleman" comes on strong like something new, something fresh--but it's really the same military formula as before, a crackpot boot camp melodrama. Richard Gere escapes his rough-hewn, hard-partying naval seaman father (a skeevy Robert Loggia) by enlisting in Navy Officer Candidate School to become an aviator, but his drill sergeant appears to hate him on sight. Louis Gossett Jr. Plays the sneering, appalled gunnery sergeant with absolutely no let-up--and with no regard to all the impersonations of this same character from past history (he's yet another cliché, putting a spin on the old "Are you a man?" line by changing it to "steers and queers"). Debra Winger has a threadbare role as a factory worker and man-chaser who only wants to land an officer; she's around to make Gere swoon and contemplate his heart. Director Hackford's film was touted as a romance (complete with an Oscar-winning love theme), a "modern" boy-meets-girl story, yet one with the same musty trappings and a fairy tale ending. Curiously, the central relationship in the movie (albeit a masochistic one) is between stubborn recruit Gere and sergeant Gossett, who's out to break the young rebel. Popular at the box-office, the picture is a stale throwback without much humor or heart, only sweat. Six Oscar nominations in all, winning for Gossett Jr. As Best Supporting Actor and for that hokey song, "Up Where We Belong", composed by Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings. The song also won the BAFTA and the Golden Globe. *1/2 from ****

I just can't see how so many people actually could like this movie. It's good done, I'll give it that. But it ain't a good movie. It's average at best. It is full of clichés and it is a 1 hour and 50 minutes long advertiser for the U.S. Navy. And I ain't kidding. Nearly every one in this movie is oh, so brave and daring. This movie only contains three good scenes. Only 3 good scenes. Those are: When Seegar finally makes it over the obstacle, which is a cliché but is still kind of sweet. The other one is the fight between Zack and Foley, and the last one is the last scene which is still a classic. Other then that, this movie is just average and not something I'll put in my DVD library.

Though ribbed by some critics for being a crude update of the formula film romances of the 1940's, audiences still showed up in droves to see this film and turned it into one of the biggest grossers of 1982. While the film may certainly follow the general formulaic outlines of the genre, director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter Douglas Day Stewart dodge sentimentalization with a healthy dosage of grim reality. This is no longer the ultra-glamorized world of old Hollywood; AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN is a movie about love in the real world. By not sheltering it's lovers from the harsh nature of humanity, the film manages to have a significantly greater impact as it works toward a deservedly optimistic ending. In a role turned down by both John Travolta and John Denver, Richard Gere lends a brooding intensity that electrifies what could have been a bland protagonist. Debra Winger, with her down-home sexiness at it's peak, turns in a fascinating portrayal of small town frustration, and Louis Gossett Jr nearly steals the picture in a harrowing, Oscar-winning performance. In fact, Gere's relationship with Gossett's Drill Sargent is just as involving as his love affair with Winger. The supporting cast is also well-cast, with David Keith, Robert Loggia, and Lisa Blount delivering standout performances.

Some gifts keep on giving...like rotting fish. To that extent, this film, perhaps the worst ever to win an Oscar, gives even to this day. Ever since the overplayed theme song ("up where we belong") demolished the airwaves in the summer of 1982, I have always imagined this film as sappy, lousy, a total "chick flick" and with a terribly unrealistic portrayal of our military. As it turned out, even those low expectations were not met, as this film is far worse. In fact, if you were to set out to make a bad movie, with a bad cast, bad cinematography, and a bad theme song, you'd be hard-pressed to "top" this. No one factor makes this film bad, as you could remove any one item from the film and it would still stink. Zach Mayo (Richard Gere) isn't inspiring as a lead, nor is Gere, but Deborah Winger takes bad to a new level in this film as the extremely uninspiring, social-climbing girlfriend (who puts down a fellow social climber for doing the same thing). A few years ago Winger lamented on there not being roles for older female actresses, but perhaps those who were avoiding her merely saw her crapper of a performance in this film. As is this were bad enough, we wind up stuck with Lou Gossett Jr. as an academy award winner for his phoned-in performance as the stereotypical drill instructor, a movie with no real plot that is driven by poor characters, and total pandering to the female side of the audience that drives the box office. While not surprising that the movie was a hit, that doesn't improve its quality. Simpleminded moviegoers will love it, while those with an acquired taste for quality film will see right through it. A must-miss, but if you are curious, check out this film for its train-wreck appeal.