An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Richard Gere plays a street tough Navy brat (Zack Mayo) whose mother
committed suicide when he was thirteen, and whose alcoholic sailor
father raised him above a whorehouse in the Philippines. Zack has been
on his own most of his life, and he has the tattoos to prove it, along
with the scars, both visible and internal.
The only chance he has left is to make it through Naval officers
training school in Seattle. If he isn't ridiculed or beaten to death by
the meanest drill sergeant you could hope to meet (an Oscar-winning
performance by Louis Gossett, Jr), or distracted by the social-climbing,
desperate local girls from the paper mill, Mayo (or Mayonnaise, as he
comes to be known by his thirty-four classmates) he just might become a
jet pilot.
During the thirteen weeks of hell that follow, some of the officer
candidates are weeded out through physical and mental breakdowns, but
Mayo has the intelligence, the discipline, and the muscle to take
whatever the Navy dishes out.
Coming to grips with his own inner turmoil is a slower process, and
one of the film's most endearing qualities is the way it stretches Mayo
from a violent, smug, hostile loner into a man who can love unselfishly
and be a friend without compromise to his fellow recruits.
Mayo wants no attachments - until he meets Paula (Debra Winger), who
pretends she just wants to have a good time until he gets shipped off
somewhere, knowing she runs the risk of being deserted just as her own
mother was left behind pregnant years earlier by her own father.
There is nothing extraordinary about what happens to Mayo, Paula or
their best friend, Sid (David Keith), or how they learn to face the
future with optimism and courage despite all the terrible things they go
through emotionally. However, the way every element comes together
seamlessly makes An Officer and a Gentleman a gripping,
suspenseful, and thoroughly moving film.
Richard Gere is perfect, and after the rough deal she got in Cannery
Row Debra Winger more than lives up to the potential she showed in Urban
Cowboy in a full-bodied role that gives her a real person to play
instead of a caricature.
As the Polish factory worker who gets her romantic ideals from Cosmopolitan
magazine, bravely meeting life's challenges in a head-on collision, she
is heartbreaking.
The best performance is by David Keith, who plays the Oklahoma
hayseed with a built-in code of ethics with an intimacy and a charm that
is infectious and ultimately haunting. He is the actor who was so
wonderful as both the redneck bully in The Great Santini and the
cocky, ill-fated prisoner in Brubaker.
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