This movie baffled me so much I had to put an open call on Twitter for people to explain it to me.
Brian Moreland (Timothy Hutton) is a cadet at a private military academy. He is looking forward to his senior year when the Commandant (George C. Scott) reveals that the school has been sold and is scheduled to be torn down and turned into condos after the next year. Then a tragic accidental firearms discharge sees the Commandant arrested and the school shut down bumped up to "immediately". Moreland decides to rally the other children, occupy the school, and refuse to hand over the armory until their demands are met.
First of all, I cannot imagine any world where I would be invested so much in a school I'm willing to engage in armed insurrection. And that's the goal here. There's been no travesty of justice, no wrong committed against the students. A private institution was sold in a perfectly legal manner to the chagrin of the minors inhabiting it. This isn't Red Dawn where someone invaded their homeland. This is a spoiled teenager with access to mortars and grenades throwing a tantrum because his school is being closed down before he's ready to let go of it.
I have no idea what audience this movie is for. (The internet's consensus seems to be "teenaged boys in the 80s," a category I am wholly unfamiliar with.) I was in the military and these boys made me want to slap them all with a wet copy of the UCMJ. The only reason I can see to watch this is the cast. It features three very young actors before they became household names: Sean Penn in his debut, Tom Cruise bringing his trademarked insanity intensity to his role of That One Douche Who Takes Everything Way Too Seriously, and Giancarlo Esposito. And maybe to marvel at how many people in Hollywood have had their teeth fixed.
It's currently streaming on Starz, which I have through Amazon Prime. Do not bother.
No comments:
Post a Comment