'An Officer and a Gentleman'
A retrospective movie review by Walter Frith
'An Officer and a Gentleman' did an extraordinary thing when it was first released in 1982. Not only did it showcase the best performance of Richard Gere's career, but it found the perfect balance necessary in appealing to both men and women. Many of my friends saw the movie on their first dates and it struck an emotional chord with many of them. It also made personality the main focus of its moral overtones and while it did appear at times to play out like a soap opera, no one can accuse it of being a false statement on life.
Set in Seattle, Washington, the opening scene is rather unattractive as it shows Gere in a hotel room pulling up the blind and the camera shows two naked people embraced together in bed. It turns out to be Gere's father (Robert Loggia) and a prostitute. Gere informs his father (an alcoholic and womanizer) that he has joined the officer's candidate school of the local Navy branch. His father laughs and Gere walks out on him.
The film's opening credits are displayed as Gere rides his motorcycle to the military academy and he along with a host of others are grilled in an opening monologue by their drill sergeant (Louis Gossett, Jr. who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar). He immediately takes a disliking to Gere and his ways.
Gere turns out to be a hustler for profit. Selling things like boots, belt buckles and other accessories to the men in his bunkhouse. The film also shows his developing friendship with a fellow officer candidate (David Keith) and Gere has a romantic fling with a local factory girl (Debra Winger) who turns him into what the title suggests, 'An Officer and a Gentleman'. It was an Oscar nominated role for Winger which she excelled at.
What is most enjoyable about the film are the one-on-one scenes which involve Gere and Gossett. Gossett certainly is a major factor in molding and shaping Gere into becoming a better person but more importantly he is the ideal authority figure in Gere's life and he's like one of those teachers we hated at the time we were learning but later we realize that their methods were for are own good and we come to admire them.
Another bonus to the film is seeing how negative moral choices can play a permanent part in life and while the film doesn't try and force the issue of morals, it simply paints them as unavoidable parts of out existence.
VISIT FILM FOLLOW-UP BY WALTER FRITH AT
http://home.netinc.ca/~wfrith/movies.htm
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