In order to fully discuss everything that is wrong with this film, and there is quite a lot, I am warning you that many spoilers are on the horizon of this review. Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is an undercover military cop who is investigating the assault and murder of a Army officer Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), who happens to be the daughter of Army General Campbell (James Cromwell) who is being considered as a vice-presidential running mate. Brenner is stuck with sexual assault expert Sara Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), who happens to be a former lover. Trouble right there already. Brenner is pressured by General Campbell and his aide Colonel Fowler (a very unmilitary looking Clarence Williams III) to hurry the investigation along before the FBI is brought in. Among the suspects are creepy James Woods as the daughter's commander Colonel Moore, Fowler, and the local hick sheriff's son. Elisabeth, it turns out, liked her sex a little rough, and kept video recordings of it. Brenner, who briefly met the daughter while he was undercover as a hick sergeant, takes the case personally. Timothy Hutton plays the military police commander Colonel Kent who helps Brenner and Sunhill along with their investigation.
Brenner and Sunhill stumble across more suspects than a ten season "Murder, She Wrote" binge watch, yet find time to trade verbal love barbs that sound like rejected lines never uttered by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday." The condescending attitude these two characters have toward military life is staggering, as Moore points this out. A positive: Simon West's direction is great. He finds little things to focus his camera on, and his editing is quick without inducing a headache. It would be interesting to see what he would do with a script that doesn't play like it was written on a dinner napkin. The negatives? Here goes. This film hates women and hates the military and really hates women in the military. All the officers are psychopathic sexual sadists and the non-commissioned officers are stupid hicks. Just because the film takes place in Virginia, does not mean that all stationed military personnel there will have a Southern accent. I lived at RAF Mildenhall, England for six months, yet did not come back to the states and call everyone either "bloke" or "guv'ner." Brenner and Sunhill, amongst their cutesy bantering, break almost every evidence and interrogation law known to man, just because they are the cool hero couple. A subplot involving Brenner's run-ins with the local hick sheriff is embarrassing. After Brenner kills a gun runner with a motorboat (don't ask), he gets uppity with the local police, who understandably have questions. His arrogance wears thin very quickly. Suggesting the daughter was raped at West Point, then martyred herself to cover up this fact is ridiculous. The film says, "women should be in the military, but they are being stopped by these fictional characters in this fictional situation." The three star general, who does nothing more than sit in his office and smoke all day, also puts the Army ahead of his home life. The scene where he finds his daughter after she has reenacted her earlier rape is embarrassing as a viewer, and looks embarrassing to the actors. It should have been embarrassing to the writers and director, but apparently they decided to leave their scruples at home that day. In the end, the killer offs themselves with a landmine, which apparently any active duty personnel can attain.
I was an Air Force Brat for twenty years, and I still want someone to show me the mansions the officers live in, the sexual depravity that they must exhibit, and the civilians who do not get along with anyone else in uniform. That's right, 99.9% of everything that happens in this film would not happen in real life. I am aware that this is a story, not a documentary, but some semblance of fact would help. Incredible leaps in logic are not dealt with, just accepted. The only two actresses here are sexually assaulted, or threatened with sexually assaulted. In Hollywood, it is always popular to trash the military, it has been since Vietnam with a bunch of whiny liberal actors all dressed up in camo and thrusting their nutty agenda on an unsuspecting nation. I give a one finger salute to this stupid, wretched, sleazy film.
