TAPS (1981)

TAPS (1981)

Tagline : This school is our home, we think it's worth defending.

(Drama) [PG] 

Well, you go to the movies, you read books. A military leader is always portrayed as slightly insane. Very often more than slightly. That's because it is insane to cling to honor in a world where honor is held in contempt.

In this one there is a group of cadets training for entry into the military at a school called Bunker Hill Military Academy, when the schools leader General Harlan Bache, is given the news that the school is being shut down. It seems like about a billion kids go there. The idea is that they are going to replace the school with condos, and that the cadets will be sent to other schools to complete their training. They are given 1 year to prepare. After an incident involving General Bache, the timeline is sped up to “we are closing this school asap.” The students know that General Bache is not about to give up the academy for a bunch of condos, so they take over the campus and continue training, with a few pretty simple demands. Ultimately they find themselves in a face-off against the cops, their parents and the US military forces sent to take the school by force if necessary. 

This was a timely movie to watch because it mirrors in some ways events that have occurred in 2020. These kids had a bold but reasoned and fair request that they didn’t have the authority to make. The way they went about getting their demands met was the issue, and ultimately the movie ended up in chaos. The storyline moves very slow, and is very deliberate. If you checked out on the dialog, I can see where it would even be a bit of a snooze-fest for the majority of the first half of the film. This thing is long and it feels long. 

In the depths of this formidable cinematic effort we have a young cadet named David Shawn (played by Tom Cruise) that almost doesn’t even sound like Cruise. He’s overly intense and you can feel his will, getting cemented with each frame. Cruise’s performance is good, but it doesn’t outshine Timothy Hutton who plays Brian Moreland. In the movie Moreland is the cadet’s leader in the absence of General Bache being at the school. His effort in this movie is fantastic. George C. Scott as General Harlan Bache is good, and Sean Penn stands out as Alex Dwyer as well (it was actually the first movie Penn was in). There is also an appearance from Ronny Cox, who plays Colonel Kerby, but most people know him from being the bad guy in both ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL. The movie also featured 650 real life cadets. 

The vast majority of this movie happens at the academy, but there is nothing claustrophobic about the way the movie is shot. Early on I think most would side with the cadets, but this thing takes you on an emotional ride that touches on both the pride that comes with great honor, and tiptoes into the realms of dangerous loyalty. This movie is cinematically stunning and is laced with intriguing dialog throughout. Having said that, I can see why those disconnected from military like myself might not fully understand all of the thought processes that went into the cadet’s method of operation. 

For me this one is one of those films you pick up every 20 years or so. It’s not all that fun, it’s extremely serious and in many ways heartbreaking. Normally that’s a formula for “not my cup of tea” when it comes to movie going, but this is an eye opening experience. It does its job of taking you into its world and forcing you to hold on tight, while emotionally struggling to find any real footing. I give this movie a 5 out of 7, but I could easily have given it a 6 out of 7. There is a lot of master filmmaking going on here. It’s just a bit of a rough watch for me. 

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