The General's Daughter

2 Stars (out of four)

So this was one of those films I have been meaning to see for a long time, and after I finished, I asked myself, "why?"  It was not horrible, but not very good either.   I am also still trying to understand what exactly what truths or messages it was promoting.

The movie starts with John Travolta playing an undercover Criminal Investigative Division (CID) agent in the Army, Warrant Officer Cage.  He is called to investigate a gruesome rape/murder of a very popular 3-Star general's (James Cromwell) daughter.  Along with a CID rape investigator and former flame (Madeline Stowe), they uncover a sordid underworld of sex that the general's daughter was involved which may or may not have had something to do with her death.

So, without getting too much into the plot-spoilers, let's just say no one comes out clean.  The 90's were a time when it became kind of fashionable to do really edgy or nihilistic dramas, like: 8mm, Leaving Las Vegas, Se7en, Pulp Fiction, Crash, Fight Club, Trainspotting, Donnie Darko, even Showgirls; with varying levels of success in getting their points across.  It was actually a bit of a heady time, especially for independent films, documented in the amazing book Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film by Pete Biskind.  There wasn't an explosion of great flicks like this since the 70's with young, hungry directors like Tarantino, Van Sant, Aronofsky, Soderberg, Lee, Singleton, the Hughes and the Coen brothers and others who wanted to make their mark.  Some of the films were truly visionary or mind blowing, and almost all independently made, with the majors trying to compete.  And when the major studios tried to compete, the result was usually something like The General's Daughter.

I'm not exactly sure what the movie was about.  The movie seemed to be commenting on the changing role of women in the military similar to G.I. Jane, and the issues of sexual harassment and assault that were coming to light with those changes.  The tailhook scandal was in 1991, 8 years before, and The General's Daughter was probably written in response to the reports of ugly and shameful behavior that many women face (and still face today) in the military.  But by personalizing it in such a brutal way, it comes off as hamhanded and hokey.  The issue of sexual harassment in the workplace was handled much better in North Country, made six years later and with the added benefit that it was a true story.  While the filmmakers' hearts may have been in the right place on exposing the plight of women in the military at the time, the extra sordidness of the story cheapens the message, or at least seemed that way to me.  In any case, it was marginally interesting, but a little confusing in the end as to who did what to whom and why.  Watch with caution.