G.I. Jane (1997)

To me, this movie is perfection.

It is a performances centric movie

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jordan O'Neill (Demi Moore) is selected to be one of the test subjects in an attempt to explore the possibility to change the policies for women in the navy. Unsurprisingly, there's more than one agenda in the mix.Yes, this is kind of a flat film. Yes: it has flaws. Yes, it's ridiculously predictable. But do I love this film or what? It's one of my dearest feel good films of all time. I think Ridley Scott managed to capture a few real issues in a film that is essentially an amusing and very simple story. The actors do a great job and the story is straightforward, I think it is all it was intended to be.Also, they beat each other up and there are helicopters and explosions.***SPOILERS and annoyingly large wall of text below!***The gender issue is so apparent it might as well be a joke, and in a lot of cases it is! Symbolic references to genitals everywhere. Maybe that's why it works so well. You want the jokes and extreme symbolism. And the helicopters and the violence.There are two powerful women in this film, both of them are trying to make it, but while being a woman is part of the strategy for one of them, being treated as a person rather than a woman is vital for the other. DeHaven is trying to make a feminist statement as part of a (not so clean) political campaign, Jordan just tries to do what she wants in life, despite being a woman.Jordan is victimised and diminished by basically all people around her, DeHaven being the most cruel of them all. At least C.O. Salem is honest. Even her partner is trying to hold her back to some extent, though he comes to respect her decision in the end. But Jordan never considers herself a victim and doesn't for one minute feel sorry for herself. There is just critique and hopeless idiocy in a lot of the characters' reasoning: 1) Women in combat isn't a yes/no decision, because it IS true that men tend to become more protective towards women, and that IS problematic in a war situation (I just read a book on this, so I feel comfortable stating this). Ideology and reality have a tendency to clash. But this doesn't mean that we can't change this: by the time this film came out the policies for women were different from they are now, so apparently we are getting somewhere. 2) There is always someone who decides what is and what isn't politically correct, and while striving for equality, what is important and what is just for show? Does forcing "gender education" upon someone really make a difference or is it just antagonising? Even if I thoroughly dislike the character C.O. Salem and all his opinions, I get where he's coming from and it's not only the 50s.How can we strive for equality when there are still people using their gender as justification or means to succeed? How can we look past "gender norms" when we are the ones upholding and creating them? And why are people not judged by what they bring to the table, when that should be the only thing that matters?

G.I.Jane has some obvious flaws. Not the least of which is when Demi Moore walks into the mess with obviously no bra on under her white tee shirt. No self respecting female trying to get into the world of a macho, hyper-testosterone fueled job would do anything to accentuate her femininity. No makeup,no feminine underwear,nothing that makes her different than a male recruit. A fact shown to good example when Moore shaves all her hair off during a break and I give her credit for actually doing it and not faking it by wearing a wig. That takes guts. As someone who has been through something similar,I can tell you that not being wanted in a group of men elicits a type of behavior in a group mentality that would never happen if the man was alone. I really enjoyed this film despite some of its problems at suspending disbelief. For example, when the master chief is looking at the exercise where the recruits are in the rain, climbing forward on their bellies under barbed wire, he's "seeing" the action that wouldn't be possible through a scope or binoculars. Another is when each team in is the water and picked up "on the go" as the inflatable rafts rush by. Each male is given help by someone inside the raft and hoisted up inside. Yet when Moore's character turn comes, there is no help and she slips back into the water. She's unable to do it but is later criticized by the Master Chief for not being able to lift her "own body weight." Well, we don't know if that's so or not, as all the males were helped getting inside. There are other instances of such examples but the thing that makes this film work for me is I know how it feels to be unwanted and be considered incapable of doing what's considered typically a "man's job." The politics and technical mistakes aside, the real essence of the film is if a woman wants to fight for her country she should be able to.

The Whole Concept Addressed: This movie must have been put out by some feminist organization trying to promote women in the military into more combat positions. Personally, I don't mind women in the military, but I am against women directly in combat. It's nasty business and no woman should be slinging a gun, going toe and fist; knife in hand on a combat field only to get captured, raped, and tortured by the enemy. What woman in her right mind would want to do this anyway? As for the plot; it was so glamorized by Hollywood & unrealistic, I laughed. Real SEAL CRT Training has little resemblance to the way it is portrayed in this movie. However, the movie keeps you entertained, esp with HOTTIE, Demi Moore. I would say it is worth seeing.A Better alternative to this movie: Act of Valor is about real Navy SEALS in action. Now that is a good movie!

Ridley Scott directed this flawed but involving study of Lt. Jordan O'Neil, a Navy topographic analyst who is chosen as a test case for the presence of women in combat. G.I. Jane is an action film tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training in U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group.The movie stars Demi Moore together with Viggo Mortensen and Anne Bancroft.The SEAL/CRT (Combined Reconnaissance Team) course depicted in the film is offered at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in California.O'Neil is hand-picked by U.S. Senator Lillian DeHaven to go through the rigorous training right along with the men. Also,she faces sexism and physical challenges as well as the horse-trading by the Senator who selected her for the experimental program.In the story,aware that she is making history and knowing that 60% of all male trainees will fail the rigorous training, Lt. O'Neil struggles to prove herself physically and mentally worthy of becoming a Navy SEAL. What she doesn't know is that she is being sold out by hard-bitten Texas senator Lillian DeHaven, who is being blackmailed by the Defense Department with politically fatal base closings unless O'Neil fails the program. The complicated political subplot, however, only distracts from the film's real virtues -- the wonderfully staged scenes of CRT selection training -- and fizzles at its climactic moment. The training scenes are wonderful, however, as the central recruits are pushed to their physical limits by a grueling weeding-out process.Master Chief John James Urgayle, a steely-eyed, tough-as-nails instructor who somehow finds time to quote D.H. Lawrence when he isn't making people eat garbage and beating O'Neil senseless as part of a training exercise. Mortensen and the believably-buffed Moore are terrific, and their scenes of confrontation are the film's high points. Unfortunately, the screenplay by David Twohy and Danielle Alexandra falls down every time it attempts to sidestep a cliché, and the climactic mission positively wallows in a predictable Top Gun muddle. Still, the characters are engaging and those looking for an enjoyable variant on the basic- training sub-genre of high-octane modern action films should be pleased.Demi Moore tries a surprising turn to play Lt. Jordan O'Neil,who unfortunately turns more into an action figure instead of a character that is a human being the possesses both strength and weaknesses. Added to that,the it was an unrealistic execution of an intriguing premise and does not make it a point to make it realistic and plausible.Also,Scott's direction turn into making the film commercially viable by presenting Demi's scenes by overselling them. Too bad that it could have been a good movie considering the talent of the cast involved if the filmmakers prioritized telling a good story rather than prioritizing Demi's appeal into an interesting role.