An Officer and a Gentleman

I love this film. Gere and Winger were hot together. The whole cast was great.

I think Gere is a terrific actor when given the right role - American Gigolo, Internal Affairs, Pretty Woman.

Lisa Blount was also excellent as Lynette.

Meryl and Shirley stole my Oscars. Cunts.

It's funny, I am a huge Winger fan, but I am surprised she got the nomination over Gere for this! She was wonderful and like I said, her charisma was off the charts (She was the meaning of "the camera loves her") But there was not one "Oscar scene" in my opinion. Whereas Gere had two scenes that were Oscar scenes- one with Gossett and with Keith.

I agree about Blount, and sadly she died 5 or 6 years ago..

Lisa Eichorn was good too.

Just a really good old fashioned film.

What was Winger's beef with Taylor Hackford? She and Jessica have frequently clashed with their directors. I think they just have strong convictions, which of course, gets them branded as "difficult."

Go into video at 8:19 & Debra talks about how unfairly she was treated on the set of An Officer and a Gentleman

So what happened to Winger?

I'd certainly give an Oscar to D before I'd give one to G.

Taylor is married to Helen Mirren, of course.

R8, Taylor Hanson? I thought we've determined that he's a big gay bottom.

Lisa Eilbacher, dude. The other Lisa. Whom I saw hanging around the hotel lobby of the Oscar party that year and begging folks to recognize her. Finally one did and she got to sign an autograph.

(Eichorn was the rather dreary actress who played a rather dreary junkie in that Jeff Bridges movie, "Cutter's Way", I think. And she's also the one who was fired from "All Night Long" and replaced with, of all people, Barbra Streisand -- in a supporting role. Streisand left Sue Mengers over that one later since it was directed by her husband).

Loved this film. I didn't know Winger was nominated for an Oscar and not Gere. She was good, but he was the movie. It's like Titanic with Winslet nominated, but not DiCaprio. Winger should have been nominated for Terms of Endearment, she was great in that. Glad Gossett won for this. Truly every performance in this film was phenomenal.

I don't like military shit.

[quote]Debra Winger HATED Richard Gere and hates this film.

Debra Winger hates everyone and everything.

Gere deserved a nomination. This scene makes me cry.

It was a wonderful film!!!! And Gere is so hot in it!! You should definitely see it!

What is the deal with Winger? I've liked a lot of her films, but was too young to follow the backstage stuff when she was really big. It just seems like she had a lot of feuds going on. How was her relationship with Travolta?

I had no idea the woman who played Lynette and the friend from Flashdance died.

Gere is just plain hot, always has been.

I liked it a lot in 1981, didn't love it.

Keep in mind that Debra Winger was/is a bi-polar mess, hence her issues getting along with people. She was probably right, however, about self indulgent psycho Shirley MacLaine in Terms.

See this thread for lots of Winger hate and shade.

Richard Gere was so fucking hot in this.

This is an iconic 80s movie that suceeds despite the acrimony. Debra Winger is one of my favorite actresses but I have a feeling if I met her I would end up cursing her out or maybe even slapping her, she seems to be so unpleasant. But she's brilliant.

Who bumped this thread! This was mine. And it is so weird to see that I was once 39!!!!!! I want to cry.

R13- I HATE military films. I really liked this- Check it out!!

Star Troupe of Takarazuka Revue Theater put this on in the autumn/winter of 2010, and it was a big hit.

Yuzuki Reon is hotter than Richard Gere, change my lesbian mind.

No, I don't like old black and white movies.

Gere was great here and so hot. I never found Winger attractive at all and she was good here but he was great. She was better in Terms of Endearment. Love the movie - a lot of great supporting characters and great performances.

Very good movie. Enjoyed it a lot back I the day, and had no desire to watch it again.

Maybe I should. It's a rare film in that it's about a segment of society that's usually ignored by Hollywood - poor small-town whites. People with no good options and no where else to go, people whose lives have only gotten more desperate as the factories went overseas and Walmart ruined what was left of their towns.

This movie Demands a remake.

Is there anybody whom Debra Winger doesn't hate or loathe?

Saw a preview months before its release. Filmmakers invited me to a discussion afterwards re opinions on aspects of the film such as why Gere had to fight Gosset in the end. They didn't believe me when I said the film would be a memorable success. It was so different than what was currently selling, meaning more emotionally gut wrenching.

Movie increased military recruitment although it was made without their strong support. Filmmakers didn't want any restrictions.

Do you mean Taylor hackford as being the filmmaker that you spoke with at the screening?

Great as he was, it's odd that Gosset Jr won the nomination (and Oscar) and David Keith wasn't even nominated. The latter had a very heartbreaking and sympathetic character, it was much more traditionally 'Oscar baity'.

The film could do with some trimming, but it's a nice portrait of small town America. Winger is incandescent as always. Gere was hot.

And he showed his balls too.

And after this one, Gere made a few bad decisions.

And some even worse ones.

[quote]Debra Winger HATED Richard Gere and hates this film. She loathed the director Taylor Hackford

Is there anyone she liked?

[quote]Gere is just plain hot, always has been.

Yep

I remember this film for hot daddy Robert Loggia.

The scene where Gere cream pies Winger was hot!

I tried watching this movie a few months ago but it was so bad I could barely get through it so I abandoned it a third of the way. Total crap.

This film, like Terms of Endearment was cliche-ridden, although I thought the casting was better here. I've always liked Winger, even if she is a mess in real life. Gere had a smoldering semi-exotic quality but really has never stuck me as very good actor. Terms is just awful--mawkish at the end, Jeff Daniels was miscast (he could play a college prof now but couldn't then) and both Maclaine and Nicholson have played similar parts better in other films.

I was in high school when this came out - loved it, but I had always heard Debra wanted to fuck Gere and he wasn't interested. Or they did fuck and Debra wanted to continue and Gere didn't.

Maybe that made her hate him, but some on this thread make it seem as if Winger hated him from the jump. I don't think that's true. This movie and Urban Cowboy make a great double feature.

I remember Winger being my new favorite actress after the three punch of Cowboy, Officer, and Terms. Then she made Mike's Murder and Legal Eagles (which is HORRIBLE) and I lost interest in her at the time.

It's interesting, Terms IS cliche ridden and mawkish but so entertaining.

I was watching one of those CNN Movie specials and the American public's favorite movies are ALL cliche ridden and mawkish lol. But we love them

Sit through E.T. now and it almost seems like a joke - but I remember it was considered a new masterpiece at the time.

And all those Nora Ephron/Meg Ryan films don't hold up very well either. But America loves them.

I was 12 years old in 1982 and my dad -- a veteran and a pilot -- loved this film so much that even though it was rated R, was filled with foul language, and featured a sex scene, he actually took me to see it - twice!

I was very lucky that both my parents loved movies so that when I became a fanatic movie buff in my teens, they were able to appreciate my enthusiasm and join me in going to see even the most obscure art films.

Take away the coarse language and gratuitous sex scenes, and this really is an old-fashioned romantic movie. You can picture Monty Clift and Donna Reed or Deborah Kerr in those parts.

I have the feeling Debra’s character being carried off at the end was the high point of her life. Downhill from there.

The Simpsons parody of the final scene is priceless. "You're here to see me, right?"

R34 what the fuck was that? Lol

R44: Donna Reed, maybe, but not Deborah Kerr--regal, frigid, and or reserved were her calling cards. Monty Clift would have had more sexual tension with David Keith or Lou Gossett. More likely, an un and coming actor whose career went poof--like Don Murray.

This would have been a great breakout role for Glenn, she can play earthy and sexy well.

She could have had this and Garp in her first year in Hollywood. She could have even snatched that Oscar away from Jessica and been standing up there grinning with her pal Meryl!

Would Glenn have played Gere’s abusive dad or Louis Gossett Jr?

Sorry, no matter who played her- Debra's role had no OSCAR SCENES. Not one. Still surprised that she was nominated at all.

Her charisma was off the charts.

You can't spell Taylor Hackford without Hack.

I only saw this film last month (I'm 51) Though it had a few great scenes, in the end I was underwhelmed.

Agree with R27 's post. This movie was about a dead-end town that housed an officer training school. The officers that moved in and out of the town were a point of excitement for the town. For the younger women, bagging one of the officers-in-training was a ticket out of the town.

I just rewatched "Urban Cowboy" and Debra Winger was really charismatic. In interviews, she says that the set of Urban Cowboy was much more enjoyable than Officer and a Gentleman.

"I have the feeling Debra’s character being carried off at the end was the high point of her life. Downhill from there. "

I disagree. I think that whatever happened to that gal, she'd see her life as an improvement on what she left behind. Even if she ended up divorced and working at the Piggly Wiggly in Fort Bragg ten years later, she'd think she was better off - she'd see her job as better than the one at the bag factory, she'd have a bigger and better pool of available men, and she'd have the self-confidence you get after having set out to achieve something difficult and having pulled it off.

Look, unless you've been there, you have NO idea what a huge boost you get when you go from having shit nothing in the world, to having... something. Anything. It completely changes your view of the world and yourself.

Didn’t Debra hate everybody she worked with? She married Timmy Hutton, who everyone seemed to love. It was a head scratcher. I later learned that Tim is an asshole too. Case closed!

You know I've never thought about what would happen in the future with Zachary and Paula. It's true though, they probably wouldn't have lasted. Watching it again recently I realized that Zach only went after her because he was tired of being alone. He was emotionally devastated by his friend's suicide and pushed her away, but for the high points of his life, he had no one to celebrate with. He seems like he would be a handful to deal with for years on end.

Hated it!

In the scene where David Keith has hung himself, was he well hung?

Good Will Hunting was the same movie. The girl ended up with a basket case but we're supposed to think it's romantic.

Gossett was pretty one note imo in this. I think they only gave it to him because it was nearly 20 years since they gave it to a black. Unfortunately, the Academy’s gesture cost Preston or Lithgow a richly deserved Oscar.

[quote]Debra Winger HATED Richard Gere and hates this film

To be fair, I don't think there are many things that Debra Winger DOESN'T hate.

I saw an interview with Gossett where he talked about this film.

From what he said, it was one of the first roles that was cast color blind. He commented that the writers did not write Foley as black. Just as Sgt Foley.

When he went to talk about playing the role, the PTB's reaction was "well, why not?" His color didn't matter one way or the other as the role was written.

I think that is one of the things that makes Gossett's performance work.

I think in the same interview, Gossett spoke about turning down "Silence of the Lambs" because he and others involved in making the film were leery about the cannibalism angle and having a black actor play the role.

R63 I don’t see the miracle here. Gossett just played a drill sergeant. White, black or whatever. They just bark shit at the underlings. He was effective in the role, just not Oscar worthy.

BUMP!

Does anyone know why this movie seems to have really been forgotten after it was once so “endlessly quoted” in the media and among film fans, had such a famous (possibly iconic?) ending scene, and was such a massive hit?

(I know it’s now an “older” film, but so many people still remember movies like “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless In Seattle” and film critics still mention them...)

It was a very good “Mid-budget” studio film made for adults—the kind of movies studios simply refuse to make anymore.

Now it is only: comic book/superhero/Marvel movies, Disney remakes, remakes of almost every (even only semi) popular film released before 1999, and the purely Oscar bait “prestige” films (which also now *must* include a socially conscious /relevant “social justice”, preachy, or sanctimonious “message” being the center of the storyline for it to have any chance at all of being considered for a possible Best Picture win.

And it doesn’t matter to me if it’s a “good issue” that I actually *really*, really agree with (which is generally the case), it is the lecturing and sanctimonious tone/attitude these films take on , and how the films act like they’re doing a huge service to the audience by “educating”/preaching to them (the little guy) about *this* “important issue” or that one, that is a *huge* turn off; it’s like a stern school lecture *disguised* as “entertainment”—which it isn’t even that.

Another thing is that all those same few allegedly “quality” Oscar bait films are now all only being released *right* at the end of the year.....

There are no more decent (well made—with talented casts and expert crews and craftsman) “mid-budget” studio movies with real stories and characters as the main focus of the project being created anymore by studios and aimed specifically at the adult movie going audience—which is a shame.

It’s like Hollywood lost its mind over the past 15 (to 20?) years and willfully forgot for some reason that they once made genuinely good films with real stories and characters, good direction and acting, and *no* robots or CGI needed in them—CGI now being used in almost every movie released these days in order to distract the audience from, or to cover up how awful the movies themselves are—which is the only thing CGI can actually kind of “help” with at all...

It’s sad and I think it (the obliteration of the mid-budget studio film in favor of 24/7 superhero and CGI fest movies) has been steadily helping to destroy the U.S. film industry and its reputation, with films like “Terms of Endearment”, “Fatal Attraction”, “Urban Cowboy”, “Working Girl”, and “Ordinary People” (among many others)—all traditional mid-budget studio movies Hollywood once made with some regularity, now being examples of bygone era in Hollywood: examples of reliably solid films that audiences enjoyed, all made in a sector of the film industry that has now all but disappeared...

“An Officer and a Gentleman” would *never* be made today (and, yes, *I know* that it’s not a “masterpiece”—but it *was* entertaining, well acted, well directed, and had some great lines in the script; audiences also loved it too...).

That is more than I can say for most new films these days—and I don’t see any sign that that will be changing anytime soon.

It’s also not a superhero/comic book movie adaptation or a remake or a franchise, so the screenplay for “Am Officer and a Gentleman” would have been rejected on sight.....

I’ve heard firsthand that Taylor Hartford has a terrible temper and is very unpredictable. He’s renowned to be difficult to work with.

That was meant to be Taylor Hackford obviously.

R65, I'm going to sound like the eldergay that I am, but IDGAF-- The mindset has changed. Today, a movie or a record album or concert tour isn't deemed "successful" unless it reaches #1 right out of the gate. You read it all the time here on DL. Something is deemed a flop because it failed to surpass so-and-so's record or it only made $200M rather than the anticipated $500M. It's all numbers and dollar signs to these young execs, which is why the idea of a mid-budget movie doesn't appeal to them. It just doesn't draw the excitement and the crowds. If you go to a big studio and pitch the idea of a character-driven story about a troubled Navy Aviation candidate and his rocky romance with factory worker, they'll tell you to take it to HBO or Netflix.

And, let me just add that the biggest promoter of the mid-budget, character-driven motion pictures, is no longer in power due to behavior that have rightfully ostracized him from the industry.

Classic.

I had to skip to end of this thread.

DEBRA WINGER IS THE WORST ACTRESS EVER!!! (Molly Ringwald is a close second)

Her tone def delivery is so off-putting. I have never understood WHO in their right mind thought that she had talent!!!!! I figured she put out and struck gold!!!!

And she hates fucking everybody she ever worked with. UHG!!! I HATE HER!

What's funny is that the 80's gets dubbed as being the era of the blockbuster and the decade that movies went to crap. But I disagree. It's an underrated era in terms of filmmaking. There was a lot of great stuff that got made but never got the appreciation that it deserved. But it gets dismissed when compared to the 70's and the 90's.

R70, I never got Debra Winger either, but she's far from "Worst Actress Ever." Critics were always raving about her, but to me, she was always saying her lines in a dry monotone, like she was bored with everyone and everything. When she would laugh or show excitement, it always seemed sarcastic.

It's a good movie, but the scenes with his father and the ones explaining his train wreck of a childhood were poorly done and never really helped the movie move develop like they could have.

The was era of Richard Gere, though. He die great movies, one after another after another. He was super handome and could act to boot. He was serious about acting while being a huge box office star.

Come to think of it... is this movie going to be remade?

Every popular movie from the 80s and 90s is being remade now in a big cash grab, and this is a property that could be tailored to fit the modern conservative zeitgeist. Have some gal in a modern small town that's been ruined by opiates and Walmart, trying to escape her deplorable existence by snagging herself a "hero" with a future.