Taps *** (1981, Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, George C Scott, Tom Cruise) – Classic Movie Review 1510

‘We have a home here. We think it’s something worth defending.’ – Cadet Major Brian Moreland. Director Harold Becker’s 1981 movie is one of the key youth-oriented films of the 80s.

It’s Timothy Hutton’s follow-up to his Oscar for Ordinary People, it’s Sean Penn’s film debut, and it was the first time Tom Cruise made an impact in the movies. They play army cadets who take over their military academy to keep it from redevelopment by condo builders in Becker’s fascinating film that is an American cousin of Lindsay Anderson’s 1968 film If.

Hutton gives a highly concentrated, totally believable portrayal of Cadet Major Brian Moreland, the leading cadet who organises the lads into seizing the armoury and the campus, going on to combat the real army when the soldiers arrive to stop all the trouble. It all starts with an announcement that the venerable, 141-year old Bunker Hill Military Academy is to be torn down and replaced with condos. The cadets organise to prevent entry of the construction crews and then have to confront the military.

Penn plays Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer, Cruise is Cadet Captain David Shawn and Giancarlo Esposito is Cadet Captain J.C. Pierce. Ronny Cox plays Colonel Kerby.

Based on Devery Freeman’s novel Father Sky, the screenplay by Darryl Ponicsan, Robert Mark Kamen and James Lineberger is smart and provocative enough, but it sometimes gets over-heated and the narrative occasionally loses its way over a long running time. However, the actors and their performances certainly carry it as the bright young stars and top-billed George C Scott as General Harlan Bache, the rather crazed, iron-jawed commander, take it all commendably intensely and seriously. And Becker’s direction is intense too.

For authenticity, the main actors were required to participate in a 45-day-long period of orientation with the students of Valley Forge Military Academy. Allegedly, Cruise opted to leave the training for the comforts of a nearby hotel until filming began. He was hired to play a background character, but so impressed director Becker in rehearsals that he was promoted.

The film features 650 real-life cadets from the Valley Valley Forge Military Academy, most of them appearing in military parade sequences.

Scott (the best actor Oscar winner for Patton) said of his character: ‘I have sympathy for Bache. He’s lived by the rules. His values were Patton’s values – duty, honour, country. He’s a proud man, and the school officials won’t give him his due. Of course, his influence on the cadets is imbalanced. Unfortunately, they have no perspective on the man.’

Taps is a musical piece sounded at dusk and at funerals, particularly by the US military.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1510

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