The Lords of Discipline

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source: The Lords of Discipline

Trailer—The Lords of Discipline

The Lords of Discipline

A movie about discipline, the Lords of Discipline is the wrong title to what could have been a great movie. David Keith stars in a Taps like movie where a coming of age drama turns into a thriller. Some interesting characters, that end up not going anywhere, the movie has a plot but no real story that drives the audience to keep watching. Issues of race and equality take a back seat to the overall story of discipline. Military schools are looked upon as either a wrong idea run by the wrong people, or the only real justice left. These questions are not answered as David Keith tries to lead his cast. Instead, a nice movie, but far from anything great. Much like David Keith's performance, the movie falls short of anything timeless.

Set in a Carolina officer cadet school THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE tells the story of a racist guild within the school who are hell bent on making sure no black cadet will ever be at the passing out parade . It`s a fairly good film but had the potential to be so much better . The problem I had is that it takes place through the eyes of cadre officer Will who I thought just a little bit too fine , upstanding and moral to take seriously and it`s because of this the film doesn`t reach the heights it could have . It should also be pointed out because it`s filmed in England doubling as an American military base I couldn`t help but be reminded of the first half of FULL METAL JACKET , it never helps a movie comparing it to that classic segment But as I said LORDS OF DISCIPLINE is an entertaining enough movie that features a bunch of actors who almost became stars in the 1980s . See if you can spot them

The armed services of the U.S. have spent years trying to define and instill the core values that they wish the Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman to possess. The military realizes that not many people have learned those core values from their home life. Induction into the service is a metamorphosis into a new life and it involves making over the former civilian into the servicemember -- body and mind. In this excellent fictional movie, the Commandant and his "Ten" lost track of the distinction between pride in their accomplishments and...elitism. Will and The Bear had honor. Will's moral courage exemplified the core values that the military strives to teach its members today.

Here is a good movie showing why one should not bother with either the military or it's pissant little institutions of higher learning. Yes the novel is 10 times better, but this is not a bad film either. Do these military schools really develop character and produce real men or do they brainwash and engender false codes of honor and loyalty thereby turning out highly tuned robots to fight for all the real reasons wars are waged - oil, money, and population control? The smart money would bypass entering these halls of insanity.

I graduated from The Citadel and can tell you that the book is not a standing joke on campus and that almost everyone reads it during their knob year for their English class. It is true that upperclassmen are not allowed to touch knobs but this is a rule that was very loosely enforced in the 60s. I was not there in the 60s but it is a well known fact on campus and by alumni. I have never heard anything of that nature and I believe they made it worse than it really was in order to make people watch it and enjoy reading the book. All in all the book is much better than the movie. Read the book don't watch the movie, or at least read the book first.

I was impressed with how well this movie captured the flavor of time and place. As a viewer I easily felt that it was Charleston, SC in the mid 1960's. The parts were well-cast and convincingly played. I would be comfortable suggesting this movie to others and would not mind seeing it again myself. Having read Pat Conroy's original novel years ago I found that the characters in the movie looked remarkably like my imagination expected them to. That was another plus. However......and this is minor......Pat Conroy's novels tend to be sprawling affairs with several plot lines (and the ensuing chaos) running concurrently. They do not condense down into a standard length feature film without editing a good bit of the original novel out. This is the case here......several minor items had to be changed for the movie to cover the fact that one of the major plot elements in the novel were left out entirely.