G.I. Jane (1997)

OK. I'm European/ME background so not the greatest fan of the US military esp. not Hollywood depictions of it. I don't want Islam in Europe (they tried twice before, not a 3rd time thank you), but nor do I want the West intruding there. Libya, Syria, and Iraq we should not be there. So I don't like the Libyan bit. Yes it happened for real as a Western intervention, no I still don't like it. It was ineffective and unsuccessful. I hated the invasion of Iraq 2003. Why am I saying all this? Because for all the 'US military is the Best in the World' as this movie tries so hard to portray (best, meanest, roughest, toughest etc.) it hasn't won a single war since against Japan 1945. GW1 was a 100hr 'turkey shoot' hi-tech war against peasants. The US military is not the best in the world, just the most expensive, and the smallest by population resource base (about less than 1% of the population). I thought Blackhawk Down was a more realistic portrayal of the US SF in an Islamic environment. Now to Demi More. I thought she performed a thankless role well. Didn't do her career much good though… Personally I do not approve of or agree with women in combat roles. Not one bit. Any other part of the military-welcome, but not combat. Esp. not in the ME where it seems at least 60% of the US effort has been for the last 15 years. There is presently a huge controversy in the US about opening up the SF to women. They the SF operatives apparently do not want it. Only the politicos (very well portrayed in the movie) want it for stupid non-military or operational reasons. If a woman in uniform is captured in the ME by Jihadis, she will endure a nightmare that will scar, damage and ruin her for life.Out there attitudes to khuffar (Infidel/non-Muslim) women in uniform are many times worse even than for Muslim women who rebel against the religion. What DM went through with Master Chief would be 'a walk in the park' compared to what she would undergo in reality at Jihadi hands. So that argument about women in combat is mostly unrealistic. And the film portrayal, while maybe realistic about the training, is unrealistic about what an enemy would do to a Woman in uniform... Not merely 'a bit of roughness' but utter screaming barbarity... The point of GI Jane was to portray women going into SF training then into combat. It failed to show the outcome of that reality in the fully conflictual (Iraqi/Syria) ME. Possibly it only wanted to portray her readiness to operate in a unit while not showing 'cultural context'. This was cheating IMHO. Imagine GI Jane in Blackhawk down. That would much more realistic. Imagine her as a chopper pilot, like the guy who got dragged off. This movie failed to portray the argument of women in SF except in the most 'entertaining' light. So it was entertaining, for that I gave it 5. But for lack of realism in its representational purpose I wouldn't give it more. A 'Blackhawk Down' scenario with a female operative would have been much more realistic

Senator DeHaven (Anne Bancroft) pressures the Navy to be gender blind. They accept as long as a woman test case can measure up to the men's standards. They figure on the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team which has a 60% wash out rate. DeHaven picks Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore) out of the approved candidates for her looks. Command Master Chief John James Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen) is their trainer. She has to overcome expectations, sexism, politics and the pressure of the program to succeed.There is nothing surprising or original in this movie. It's got all the training and director Ridley Scott is an expert at jazzing up those 'action' scenes. The most compelling originality comes from Demi Moore shaving her hair. I do have to say that she looks fierce with the bald head. She looks fierce generally and Scott has her exercising up a storm. The movie probably needs some of the other characters to step up but nobody can ever be on the same level as Demi.

When this film came out I ignored it and finally got around to seeing some of it on You Tube recently. I watched about half an hour although I did anticipate watching the whole movie. Alas I was just so bored with it by the 30 minute mark I had to withdraw from the battlefield.And it was obviously going to be a real battle against boredom to survive the whole 2 hours of this travesty of a film. Clichéd dialogue from the start, exaggerated acting, the whole thing is a cartoon of reality. Of course the main premise is nonsense, a female navy seal is out to show the patriarchy that women can do the job just as well but that isn't what seals the fate of this trash.No, what seals the fate of this trash is the superficial photography and fast editing that makes the film look like a TV commercial, which isn't surprising when you consider that's what Ridley Scott is, a TV commercial director.I like Blade Runner, Alien, The Duelists, but post Blade Runner I think Ridley, like his brother Tony now deceased, has taken the lazy route of film direction and relying mostly on visuals at the expense of depth and substance.Not much more to say other than avoid this turkey. Doing 100 press ups is much more fun than watching this but I'm sure there will be a few monkey brains who will like this.

Ridley Scott directed this flawed but involving study of Lt. Jordan O'Neil, a Navy topographic analyst who is chosen as a test case for the presence of women in combat. G.I. Jane is an action film tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training in U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group.The movie stars Demi Moore together with Viggo Mortensen and Anne Bancroft.The SEAL/CRT (Combined Reconnaissance Team) course depicted in the film is offered at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in California.O'Neil is hand-picked by U.S. Senator Lillian DeHaven to go through the rigorous training right along with the men. Also,she faces sexism and physical challenges as well as the horse-trading by the Senator who selected her for the experimental program.In the story,aware that she is making history and knowing that 60% of all male trainees will fail the rigorous training, Lt. O'Neil struggles to prove herself physically and mentally worthy of becoming a Navy SEAL. What she doesn't know is that she is being sold out by hard-bitten Texas senator Lillian DeHaven, who is being blackmailed by the Defense Department with politically fatal base closings unless O'Neil fails the program. The complicated political subplot, however, only distracts from the film's real virtues -- the wonderfully staged scenes of CRT selection training -- and fizzles at its climactic moment. The training scenes are wonderful, however, as the central recruits are pushed to their physical limits by a grueling weeding-out process.Master Chief John James Urgayle, a steely-eyed, tough-as-nails instructor who somehow finds time to quote D.H. Lawrence when he isn't making people eat garbage and beating O'Neil senseless as part of a training exercise. Mortensen and the believably-buffed Moore are terrific, and their scenes of confrontation are the film's high points. Unfortunately, the screenplay by David Twohy and Danielle Alexandra falls down every time it attempts to sidestep a cliché, and the climactic mission positively wallows in a predictable Top Gun muddle. Still, the characters are engaging and those looking for an enjoyable variant on the basic- training sub-genre of high-octane modern action films should be pleased.Demi Moore tries a surprising turn to play Lt. Jordan O'Neil,who unfortunately turns more into an action figure instead of a character that is a human being the possesses both strength and weaknesses. Added to that,the it was an unrealistic execution of an intriguing premise and does not make it a point to make it realistic and plausible.Also,Scott's direction turn into making the film commercially viable by presenting Demi's scenes by overselling them. Too bad that it could have been a good movie considering the talent of the cast involved if the filmmakers prioritized telling a good story rather than prioritizing Demi's appeal into an interesting role.