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(Against All Odds, Bound By Honour, The Devil's Advocate, Dolores Claiborne, Everybody's All-American, An Officer and a Gentleman, Proof of Life, White Nights)
Producer:
Martin Elfand
Screenplay:
Douglas Day Stewart
Music:
Jack Nitzsche
Cast:
Zack Mayo: Richard Gere
Paula Pokrifki: Debra Winger
Sid Worley: David Keith
Byron Mayo: Robert Loggia
Lynette Pomeroy: Lisa Blount
Casey Seeger: Lisa Eilbacher
Sgt. Emil Foley: Louis Gossett Jr.
An Officer and a Gentleman
is what new Navy Pilot recruit Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) appears to
be once he signs up and becomes the object of young girls' desires, like many
of the rest of his colleagues, as they spend their 13 weeks basic training
working like a dog from Monday to Friday, then letting rip at the weekend -
their "liberty time".
They're warned of the local girls who will do anything to marry a pilot, but
true love furrows its path and finds its way and so begins the feisty
relationship between Mayo and factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger).
It's at this point where I'd say that I won't spoil what happens, but everyone
knows - even people like me who are just watching this movie for the first time,
as I refused to watch it on TV where it is always censored.
The other running storyline is that between joker-of-the-pack Mayo and the
hard-as-nails drill instructor Sgt. Emil Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.)
who puts in a fine performance - and one for which he won an Oscar - but nothing
still beats R. Lee Ermey's Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal
Jacket. Foley keeps insinuating to Mayo that he must quit, but Mayo aims
to prove not only his drill sergeant wrong, but also his father, played by
Robert Loggia, whom he feels he never matched up to.
The rest of the cast includes Sid Worley (David Keith), who becomes
Zack's best friend, Sid's beau when the four are double-dating, Lynette
(Lisa Blount) and the only female amongst the recruits, Casey Seeger
(Lisa Eilbacher).
Paramount have found a fine 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which
does have some print flecks at times, but it's impressive for a 20-year-old
film.
The average bitrate is a high and steady 7.20Mb/s.
No remastered soundtrack to be found though as it's the original mono
version which is clear for dialogue but doesn't particularly stand out.
Chapters are few and far between with just 15 and subtitles for dialogue come
in the same number of languages: English (and hard of hearing),
Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish.
The extras are a 2½-minute Trailer and a feature-length
Director's Commentary, which also has subtitles available in English
and German. The menus are static and silent.
As I hinted at earlier, the picture looks very good for the age of the film,
but also given the age it's time that Paramount introduced a budget range
for films like this, at around the £13-15 price bracket.
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
