"An Officer And A Gentleman" (1982)

I love this movie. Starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger, it tells the story of Zach Mayo who lives with his alcoholic father since his mother’s death when he was a child. Deciding he wants to make something of himself, he decides to sign up for Naval Officer’s Candidate School with the hopes of attaining his childhood dream of becoming a Navy pilot. However, Zach is cocky and has more to learn than just becoming a navy pilot. But perhaps Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley and Paula, (one of the local girls) can be the ones to turn him into an officer and a gentleman!

In ways this film is fairly predictable, really...but you still have to love it. There is quite a bit of focus around the romance between Zach and Paula, pulling the audience along under the pretense of ‘will they-won’t they’...but if you’re not into that kind of thing, it doesn’t dominate the plot line, despite what all the posters suggest. I think it’s supposed to be one of the most realistic portrayals of life in a navy school. It certainly shows the harsh conditions they are expected to go through should they graduate, and the manner in which Foley speaks to the candidates can be vulgar. Basically, there is something in this movie for both genders.

 I love that each of the characters are well developed and have their own journey to make throughout the film, not just Zach. His character progression, while predictable, is done subtly through changing circumstances and the audience are left feeling satisfied. I like the relationship between Zach and Warley, whom he meets at the school. There’s a dance scene in which Zach and Warley are talking together, commenting on the goings on around them. Richard Gere and David Keith were actually improvising through this piece, and I think they did a very good job. It really gets the closeness of their friendship across to the audience, and it’s quite amusing too. I also like the relationship between Zach and Foley. They don’t see eye to eye but they do learn to care about the other before the end of the film. 

I like that the film has recurring themes. One such example is we see early on that Zach has had to learn to defend himself at a young age having been bullied by the kids in his area, and then at a later scene in a bar, a fight is started and this time Zach is able to fight back as he has learned how.

The last scene has to be mentioned. It’s a bit of a step out of the film in a way as it’s more of a fairytale ending, I suppose...but it works! And is the most iconic moment of the film. I think it’s a really pleasing and satisfying ending. We just see Zach striding down past all the machines in the navy uniform with the music playing and then he finds Paula, picks her up and carries out triumphantly. It’s been imitated in a few shows since, such as The Simpsons and Friends.

The score, by Jack Nitzche, is interesting. It seems to reverse from the traditional means of developing varied pieces from an existing song, or a song written for the film. In this case, the score was already written and “Up Where We Belong” (performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes) was composed afterwards, as opposed to the other way around. I found this interesting. As well as this, there are some good songs included too from the likes of Dire Straits and Van Morrison.

As I say, I love this film. It’s definitely one of the better ones!

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