G.I. JANE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
What is it with Demi Moore? One cannot watch her good, but older, films like GHOST and A FEW GOOD MEN without appreciating her talent. Her later films, on the other hand, have had scripts that specialize in the absurd. Why couldn't she see how hopeless they were? Was she that blinded by the size of the salary she was offered? From THE SCARLET LETTER to STRIPTEASE to THE JUROR, all have seemed destined to be disasters.
Her latest, G.I. JANE, is by the writer of WATERWORLD, David N. Twohy. Suffice it to say that it is RAMBO but with pretensions. Her character in G.I. JANE is accused once in the movie of trying to be Joan of Arc. Indeed Moore plays it like Bruce Willis playing Joan of Arc -- think DIE HARD 5, but with a message. The preachy script spends more energy philosophizing than worrying about the narrative. Remarkably little happens in the film, but it is so preposterously presented and takes so long in unfolding that the first hour will seem like an eternity.
The film opens with a hazy confirmation hearing for a new Secretary of the Navy. As the nominee describes the progress that has been made getting women into the military, he is interrupted by Texas Sen. Lillian DeHaven, sitting on a platform high above him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Mr. Hayes," she chides. "If a cannibal used a knife and fork, would you call that progress?"
Since it's a film about our military, the leaders are shown, of course, as deceitful and in collusion. They develop a scheme whereby women are given the opportunity to qualify for combat positions believed to be too hard for them and then they can declare women unfit in general. Since the toughest outfit is considered to be Navy SEALs, they let the first woman train for that group. And when later it looks like Lt. Jordan O'Neil, played by Moore, might make it as a SEAL, they develop an even more grandiose conspiracy that includes closing five bases in Texas -- thus putting thousands of people out of work -- and concocting false charges against O'Neil. This cabal will stop at nothing to prevent a woman from becoming a SEAL.
The military in this film is one in which instructors physically abuse their recruits while a hundred people watch and no one complains or tries to stop it. Although all of the SEAL candidates are hurt, none are injured more so than Lt. O'Neil. She is basically beaten to a pulp. Blood streams out of her mouth as she is slugged repeatedly during some of the milder violence that she has to endure. G.I. JANE is a needlessly gory film that is so over-the-top it is hard to decide what parts of it might be realistic.
In one scene, a naked Lt. O'Neil is finishing her shower as her instructor, played with rarely credible evil by Viggo Mortensen, promotes her on the spot. In a line so cliched that he must have had trouble delivering it with a straight face, he says, "Remember, there are no bad crews, only bad leaders."
After drifting aimlessly from one outlandish scene to another, the tedious film's last third takes the asinine plot to new lows and makes the unbelievable first parts look almost plausible in comparison. (G.I. JANE manages to be even more ludicrous than THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY that I saw last week. At least that film had few pretensions of realism.)
And if that is not enough to take, there is the acting, or rather overacting. Anne Bancroft, now merely a shadow of her former self, plays Sen. DeHaven. Bancroft's heavy southern accent goes in and out like the tide. She attempts to play a genteel southern lady of the old school, but is never convincing even if she does wear flowing dresses, drink bourbon, and live in dark paneled rooms. To be fair, the script gives her some of the worst of the movie's leaden lines. ("Don't ever think of playing politics with me, little darlin', or you'll be up way past your bedtime.") People in the film don't converse, rather they engage in political monologues and sermonettes. Lt. O'Neil's instructor shouts D. H. Lawrence poetry in the faces of the SEAL trainees.
Moore spends most of the film grandstanding while her character assiduously claims she isn't. "I'm not here to make some sort of a statement," Lt. O'Neil informs the base's commanding officer upon her arrival. "If you were someone else, you wouldn't be making statements about making some sort of a statement, would you?" intones the chauvinistic commander.
Usually reliable director Ridley Scott does not trust the audience to understand his points so he overemphasizes them and drills them into our heads through repetition. He has the military villains frowning and smoking big smelly cigars. Scott's uninvolving action sequences are little more than loud, and he seems obsessed with imbuing the film with a message with a capital "M."
Although most of the film can be quite annoying as Scott exploits an important subject, the picture does have its moments. Hugh Johnson's handsome cinematography gives the film an intensity and an honesty that the script lacks. His use of a spastic zoom during the gunfire was a bit much, however. Cheri Minns's stark make-up for Demi Moore shows the wear and tear on her face from too much water and too many beatings. And finally for those fans of Moore's body, editor Pietro Scalia's favorite scene transition is another glimpse of Moore buffing up doing one hand push-ups. Personally, I would have preferred acting to sweating.
G.I. JANE runs overly long at 2:08. It is rated R for violence and profanity. The film would be fine for mature teenagers. I give the picture thumbs down and * 1/2 for its unrealized potential.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 6, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews