Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker (1994) (TV)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Harry Moses

Writer (WGA):

Harry Moses (written by)

Release Date:

27 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets...

Plot Keywords:

West Point | Racism | Told In Flashback | Courtroom | Rutherford Hayes

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Richard Greener
Sam Waterston	...	Daniel Chamberlain
Mason Adams	...	Henry D. Hyde
Val Avery	...	Gen. Sherman
Eddie Bracken	...	Maj. Charles T. Alexander
Gene Canfield	...	McIntosh
Robert Clohessy	...	Dan Broyles
Al Freeman Jr.	...	Old Johnson Whittaker
Ken Garito	...	Cadet Lewis Ostheim
Greg Germann	...	Vernon Bailey
John Glover	...	Maj. Asa Bird Gardiner
Brad Greenquist	...	Dr. Beard
Peter Maloney	...	Captain William Smith Michie
George Martin	...	President Rutherford B. Hayes
Scott Paetty	...	Cadet George Burnett

Also Known As:

Assault at Westpoint (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

Brazil:95 min | USA:98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Buena Vista, Virginia, USA

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Garand rifle on the cover picture wasn't designed till the 1930s.

Quotes:

Maj. Asa Bird Gardiner: They shouted, "This is how we mark hogs down South". How do they mark hogs down South?
Cadet Johnson Whittaker: I don't know, I'm not a hogs marker.

Fine film, but...

This was a very good film. The acting was superb and the cinematography was good. The guy who played cadet Wittaker was so good I am amazed he never got an award for his appearance. There is just one problem with the film that kept bugging me for the entire film. The movie is supposed to be about a cadet from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, and it was supposed to have several flash backs to the that prestigious Academy, but apparently the makers of this film made these scenes not at West Point...but at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA. IT is because of that simple, yet major, error that I was unable to give this movie a higher rating. Those who see this movie be for warned. What you are looking at is not West Point but the Virginia Military Institute...which, for all you Civil War buffs, was and still is known as "The West Point of the South."