The General's Daughter (1999)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Simon West

Writers (WGA):

Nelson DeMille (novel)
Christopher Bertolini (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 June 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Go behind the lies.

Plot:

When the daughter of a well-known and well-respected base commander is murdered, an undercover detective is summoned to look into the matter and finds a slew of cover-ups at West Point.

Plot Keywords:

General | Detective | Murder | Captain | Investigation

Awards:

3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

John Travolta	...	Warr. Off. Paul Brenner
Madeleine Stowe	...	Warr. Off. Sara Sunhill
James Cromwell	...	Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell
Timothy Hutton	...	Col. William Kent
Leslie Stefanson	...	Capt. Elisabeth Campbell
Daniel von Bargen	...	Police Chief Yardley
Clarence Williams III	...	Col. George Fowler
James Woods	...	Col. Robert Moore
Peter Weireter	...	Belling
Mark Boone Junior	...	Dalbert Elkins
John Beasley	...	Col. Donald Slesinger
Boyd Kestner	...	Capt. Jake Elby
Brad Beyer	...	Capt. Bransford
John Benjamin Hickey	...	Capt. Goodson
Rick Dial	...	Cal Seivers

Also Known As:

Wehrlos - Die Tochter des Generals (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for graphic images relating to sexual violence including a strong rape scene, some perverse sexuality, nudity and language

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

Germany | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #36365) | Philippines:R-18 | Malaysia:U | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Netherlands:12 (TV version) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KNT | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 (bw) | Ireland:18 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:R(A) (original rating) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Savannah, Georgia, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The Fort MacCallum scenes were filmed at Savannah State University and Van Nuys Airport.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the end of the movie, Brenner tells LTG Campbell that he is going to charge him under Article 32 of the UCMJ. Article 32 is not a punitive article. It is an article concerning a procedural hearing akin to a grand jury in the civilian court system.

Quotes:

Warrant Officer Paul Brenner: Unclench your ass cheeks, Delbert, the scary part's over.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The General's Daughter: Behind the Secrets (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

Lead Me to the Rock

A study in dysfunction, seething with sleaze....

In the tradition exemplified by Aeschylus' Oresteia and carried on by campfire legends, Victorian Gothic novels, and even some of the old penny dreadfuls, this march through the darkness of human behavior is not a light-hearted diversion or much of a date movie, but it is... intriguing.

Spiced up with violence and sex and a pretty naked girl, it's still more suited for deep overthinking than for perching on the edge of one's seat. Themes that bubble up include power, dominance, fitting the mold (or not), and dominant versus nondominant means of exerting... influence. These spring from, and play well against, the backdrop of that paradigm of pecking order and conformity that is the military at its worst. Rape is about power, and in this tale sex seems to pretty much be politics -- a physicalization of what is going on in political, social, mental terms in this highly ordered and rigidly heirarchical society. (It's a classic tie-in, sex and power, and it makes the movie more apparently prurient and therefore marketable, I assume.) It's a heavy bunch of themes to try and dress up with sensational elements and shoe-horn into a commercial package, and maybe that's why it winds up leaving me, well, even flatter than Aeschylus. (Disturbing as I suppose it should have been, the outboard motor unfortunately didn't just remind me of Clytemnestra's bathtub axe murders, I actually found myself remembering a little adaptation of The Agamemnon which includes the the hatchet-wielding queen reciting the line "I will whack him in my wrath, I will whack him in his bath".)

Maybe Brenner should have had an affair with Capt. Campbell (before she got killed, I haven't studied enough Greek tragedy to be THAT warped), in lieu or or in addition to Ms. Sunhill -- no one really belongs in this story unless they have serious sleaze under their rugs or skeletons in their closet. (Maybe that's why I have a problem buying Brenner, I don't know). What Sunhill is really doing there, besides preventing Brenner from talking to himself (though that might have made him a more interesting character) and serving as token damsel in distress, I'd hate to have to guess.

There are some good scenes in this movie, and I don't mean the graphic visuals intended to be viscerally unsettling. There was real intensity in the scenes between Brenner and Moore, though they could have been better had Travolta more fully embraced the seductive undercurrent of the psychological fencing match. (If you don't get it, try picturing the same scenes with either role recast as a woman). That's a key to figuring out what *might* be interpreted as the thematic threads tying together this whole sordid nightmare. (That and the who-&-why of the mystery genre, which is often a sufficient raison d'etre for many stories).

Everyone in this film is competent, as we have every right to expect (Leslie Stefanson is the only "novice" in a significant role). It is hard to be surprised, especially by a cast like this in a film like this, but I do particularly commend the courage James Woods displayed in playing Colonel Moore with all the unreserved insight & professional excellence one characteristically expects of this thespian genius. Not every actor could have embraced the character and the subtexts without pulling back into a caricature.

In summary, I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes a very dark drama that improves in quality when overanalyzed. It's not a romp or a rock-'em-sock-'em adventure. It is also only for those sufficiently jaded (by films, or by dissection labs) to icky visual images, or those sufficiently intuitive to know when to close their eyes because something disgusting is due onscreen. With those qualifications, I would say this is no rival to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane or to Rear Window, but it is excellent, albeit rather depressing, counter-programming for those sick of kiddie movies and/or wondering why Austin Powers never falls in a lake when there's a motorboat around....