The Lords of Discipline ***½ (1983, David Keith, Robert Prosky, G D Spradlin, Michael Biehn) – Classic Movie Review 5400

British director Franc Roddam confidently tackles this 1983 American military school drama with a tough surface and a powerful theme: a condemnation of false manly values and of racism at the heart of America’s institutions.

Heading a choice cast, David Keith gives an excellent account of himself as Will McLean, the senior cadet who is ordered to watch over the school’s first black cadet, Tom Pearce (Mark Breland), in 1964 in the American South.

The screenplay by Thomas Pope and Lloyd Fonvielle is based on a partly autobiographical 1980 novel by Pat Conroy, who wrote The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini.

Shot in Eastmancolor by British cinematographer Brian Tufano, it is mostly made in England in 1982, but anyone would believe that it is South Carolina in 1964.

The Lords of Discipline is a tough, hard-hitting and uncompromising movie.

Also in the cast are Robert Prosky as the colonel, G D Spradlin as the general, Barbara Babcock, Michael Biehn, Rick Rossovich, Mark Breland, John Lavachielli, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Malcolm Danare, Judge Reinhold, Greg Webb, Bill Paxton, Dean Miller, Ed Bishop, Stuart Milligan, Katharine Levy, Jason Connery, Ralf Saxon, Michael Horton, Ian Tyler and Sophie Ward.

Bill Paxton, known for Aliens, Titanic and Twister, died of complications after surgery on 25 February 2017, aged 61.

Pat Conroy died of pancreatic cancer on 4 March 2016, aged 70.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5400

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