doaskdotell MOVIE REVIEW of The General’s Daughter

Title: The General’s Daughter

Release Date: 1999

Nationality and Language: USA, English

Running time: 100 min

MPAA Rating: Not available (suggest PG-13)

Distributor and Production Company:

Director; Writer: Simon West, based on the novel by Nelson De Mille

Producer: Mace Nuefeld

Cast: John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe

Technical: full Panavision

Relevance to DOASKDOTELL site: gays in the military, military values

Review:

Movie Review: The General's Daughter; Paramount (1999); Directed by Simon West; Based on a novel by Nelson DeMille; Starring John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe; Panavision; 7.0/10

Well, Paramount apparently want progressively minded moviegoers to know that it can be politically correct, and that it really cares about who can serve in the military. It goes as far as women in the military (and sexual harassment in the military).

The plot, though, is a bit preposterous. A general will cover up the gang-rape of his own daughter at West Point (women were admitted there in 1976) because women-in-the-military is at risk? (Military cover-ups, as we know from the lesbian baiting of the military ban, are more likely to be aimed at driving women out.) Then, the female officer gets into heterosexual sadomasochism (Motel Hell (1984) style), only to set herself up for another fake rape, which turns out to be her final demise.

True, the scene where a West Point graduate is caught red-handed in a lie by a female CID agent and made to fear for his staying out of jail (for the rape that happened seven years ago) is enticing. And a most precocious feline tells investigators that a corpse is in a particular house by smearing blood on the windows with his paws. (Yes, cats can talk.) And there is that dialogue where Travolta is asked, "are you a soldier first, or a policeman." CID enlisted men often wear civies and can arrest officers.

A Few Good Men (discussed in DADT Chapter 4) is a much better film about the modern military. But, the reckless male heterosexual behavior in this movie would lead one to believe, that "heterosexuality is incompatible with military service."

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