A great movie that just happens to use the Navy as a prop? Nope, the military here is a lot more than that. I know because I spent three years in the Army. But [as expected] it leaves out the part about American foreign policy and the military industrial complex. But then you have to make allowances for a film this engaging.
And, yes, yet another cynic bites the dust. It seems that flying jets and the love of a good woman is what it took this time. Maybe I ought to give it a try.
All that aside the film captures dramatically how life can spin you around and around and around. Some things are beyond your control and some things depend almost entirely on what you are able to with them.
IMDb
According to “High Concept”, Charles Fleming’s biography of producer Don Simpson, the producer was alleged to have said to the auditioning Debra Winger, “There may be somebody else for this part. I need somebody fuckable. You’re not fuckable enough.”
Like, uh…
Kristy McNichol and Brooke Shields were each offered the role of Paula, but both turned it down.
And here are four actors who turned down the role Richard Gere finally took: John Travolta, Jeff Bridges, Kurt Russell and [believe it or not] John Denver.
Jack Nicholson turned down the Gunnery Sargent Foley role played by Louis Gossett
Wiki
Richard Gere balked at shooting the ending of the film, in which Zack arrives at Paula’s factory wearing his naval dress whites and carries her off the factory floor. Gere thought the ending would not work because it was too sentimental. Director Taylor Hackford agreed with Gere until, during a rehearsal, the extras playing the workers began to cheer and cry. When Gere saw the scene later, with the music underneath it (“Up Where We Belong”) at the right tempo, he said it gave him chills. Gere is now convinced Hackford made the right decision. Screenwriter Michael Hauge, in his book Writing Screenplays That Sell, echoed this opinion: “I don’t believe that those who criticized this Cinderella-style ending were paying very close attention to who exactly is rescuing whom.”
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
Directed by Taylor Hackford
[b]Byron: I’m out at sea three weeks out of every month, and when I’m back at port I don’t have time for this daddy stuff 'cause that’s not who I am.
Young Zack: That’s okay, sir
Byron: Wait a second, kid, you don’t understand. I’m too old for this. I don’t care what the Navy says. This is no place to bring up a kid like I told you on the telephone. You’re better off at that state school back in Virginia.
Young Zack: I’m never going back there. They treat me like shit.
Byron: Maybe that’s not for you to say. Goddamit, don’t look at me that way. What happened to your mother had nothing to do with me.
Young Zack: It did. You said you were gonna come back. You promised.
Byron: Is that what she said? That’s a female lie. That’s bullshit! That’s a lie!
Young Zack: I found your letters. I read them right after she did it. You said you were gonna come back for us. You said you loved her, and she believed you. You’re a liar!
…
Zack: Get ready. This one will blow you away.
Byron: Nothing you do is ever going to surprise me. Tell me.
Zach: I joined the Navy.
Byron: You joined the Navy?
Zach: That’s right, I did. I’m on my way to Port Rainier, this officer’s training school over there.
Byron: What for?
Zach: Jets. I want to fly jets.
…
Byron: I just don’t want to see you do something you’ll regret. You got to give up six fucking years of your life if you want to fly. Six fucking years, with the most uptight assholes on earth.
…
Foley: I expect to lose half of you before I’m finished. I will use every means necessary, fair and unfair, to trip you up, to expose your weaknesses as a potential aviator and as a human being, understand? The price at the other end is a flight education worth one million dollars! But first, you got to get past me!
…
Sid: It’s grown out more than an inch, pal.
…
Paula: So, you got a girl, Mayo the wop?
Zach: No, Paula the Pollock. And I ain’t looking for one either.
…
Zach: I should have walked away.
Paula: Zack, he didn’t give you a choice.
Zach: A man’s always got a choice.
Paula: Where did you learn to fight like that?
Zach: I don’t want to talk about it.
Paula: All right [pause] You know, it wouldn’t kill you to open up to me.
Zach: What do you want? You want to fuck? Come here. Take your clothes off. I’ll give you a good fuck.
Paula: Where’s that coming from?
Zach: Get on the bed.
Paula: I wouldn’t fuck you now if…
Zach: Then get the hell out! I don’t need this shit!!
Paula: Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m not some whore you brought in here. I’m trying to be your friend, Zack.
Zach: Then be a friend. Get out of here.
Paula: Fine. Fine. Man, you ain’t nothing special. You got no manners. You treat women like whores. If you ask me, you got no chance of being no officer!
…
Foley: You never know when you’ll trip up, Mayo. It could be the grades…or it could be some character flaw that comes out under stress.
…
Foley: In every class, there’s always one joker who thinks that he’s smarter than me. In this class, that happens to be you. Isn’t it, Mayonnaise?
…
Foley: Mayo, I want your D.O.R.
Mayo: No sir. You can kick me outta here, but I ain’t quitting.
Foley: Get into your fatigues, Mayo. By the end of this weekend, you’ll quit.
…
Foley: Wave good-bye to your buddies, Mayonnaise! Oh, I forgot. You don’t have any buddies, do you? Only customers!
…
Foley: Look over there, Mayo. Look at her. She decided to stay instead of taking liberty this weekend. She may not make it, but she’s got more heart and character than you’ll ever have!
…
Foley: You can forget it! You’re out!
Mayo: Don’t you do it! Don’t! You… I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to go…I got nothin’ else. I got nothing else…
…
Zach: Sid…
Sid: Yeah?
Zach: Thanks.
…
Zach: My old lady took a bottle of pills one day when I was at school.
Paula: Oh, God.
Zach: The thing that got me about it…She didn’t leave a note. She didn’t… Nothing. She just checked out. I always hated her for that.
Paula: Oh, God. That must really hurt.
Zach: Hurt? No. No. You’re all alone in the world. Once you got that down, nothing hurts anymore.
…
Lynette: Paula…just how far would you go to get Zack? Would you let yourself get pregnant?
Paula: No way, Lynette. Would you?
Lynette: Well…I never used to think I’d do something like that. But I don’t know anymore. Nine weeks just ain’t long enough for a guy to fall in love with you.
Paula: That doesn’t justify trapping him or getting pregnant. I can’t believe you’d think that. It’s real backward.
Lynette: It ain’t any more backward than the way these hotshot assholes use us till they’ve had enough, then ditch us like we’s trash.
…
Bunny: Comes a time, right after survival training, they start to believe they can make it without you.
Paula: [referring to Zack] They said he’d already left, didn’t know when he’d be back.
Bunny: If he ain’t called by now Paula, he ain’t gonna call.
[Paula runs out crying]
Lynette: [angrily] Bunny!
Bunny: [bitterly] May they all crash and burn.
…
Mother: Let him go. Don’t trick him or trap him.
Paula: I wouldn’t do that. I’d never try to trap him.
Mother: If you find him, you’ll say anything. You will.
Paula [agonizing over it]: Mama, you’re right.
…
Zack: [getting ready to eat in the mess hall] Sit. Adjust. Pray. Attack.
…
Zach: It’s like your brother getting killed. It’s the same damn thing - him getting killed instead of you. That’s why you promised to marry Susan. You do everything out of some bullshit code of ethics.
Sid: It may be bullshit to you, but I wasn’t raised that way! We’re responsible for the people in our lives. That’s all that separates us from the animals! I’m not like you, Mayo. I can’t shit on people and sleep at night.
…
Lynette: Sid…There’s no baby.
Sid: What?
Lynette: I’m not pregnant. I got my period this morning. There’s no baby, Sid.
Sid: I’ll be goddamned. [then, after thinking about it] What do you say we get married anyway? I love you! I don’t think I really knew that till just now, just this second. I have never been happier in my life than I have in the last seven weeks. I’ve never felt so relaxed, and I’ve never felt so loved for who I really am. Lynette, marry me. Make me the happiest man in the whole world.
Lynette: I’m sorry, Sid. But I don’t want to marry you. I really like you, and we’ve had ourselves some really great times, but I thought you understood. I want to marry a pilot. I want to live my life overseas…the wife of an aviator!
Lynette: [Getting visibly angry with Sid, whom she now considers a total loser] Damn you! Goddamn you! Nobody D.O.R.'s after 11 weeks! NOBODY!
…
Zach: What did you tell him about the baby?
Lynette: That there isn’t one…as of today. I got my period this morning. I couldn’t believe it. He still wanted to marry me.
Zach: What did you say?
Lynette: I said no, of course. I don’t want no Okie from Muskogee. I can get that right here.
…
Zach: Why can’t I learn? Just like her all over again. Just like her.
Paula: Zack, don’t do this to yourself. You didn’t kill your mother. You didn’t kill Sid. They killed themselves. There’s nothing you could have done about it.
Zach: I got to leave. Want money for a cab or something?
Paula: I don’t deserve that. You’re not the only one that’s feeling awful. Maybe I had something to do with it. I knew what Lynette was doing.
Zach: Look, you got no problems! Another class will come through soon. You and Lynette… right back into business!
Paula: That’s not fair. I never lied to you. I never did what Lynette’s doing. - I’m not Lynette. I love you. I’ve loved you since I met you. Don’t you understand?
Zach: No! I don’t want you to love me! I don’t want anyone to love me. I just want out!
…
Zach: Sir, this officer candidate requests permission to see you in private… Sir.
Foley: [gently] … Mayo, the whole class already knows about Candidate Worley, and we’re sorry.
Zach: Oh, I bet you are.
…
Mayo: I never would have made it without you.
Foley: I know.
Mayo: I’ll never forget you.
Foley: Get the hell out of here.[/b]