Truth in advertising was the concept quite alien to Croatian film distributors, at least judging by the way they handled The General’s Daughter, 1999 film directed by Simon West. It was advertised as being based on real events and as drama dealing with serious issues of position of women within US military. While the latter can be argued to be true, the former can’t, because the film is an adaptation of eponymous novel by Nelson DeMille. Protagonist, played by John Travolta, is Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, undercover investigator for US Army Criminal Investigative Division. He finds himself in Fort McCallum just in time when its Joseph “Fighting Joe” Campbell (played by John Cromwell), base commander and general with political ambitions, needs someone to quickly solve delicate criminal case. Captain Elizabeth Campbell (played by Leslie Stefanson), general’s daughter and psychological warfare expert, is found naked and strangled on base’s training ground. Since everything points to rape, Brenner is joined in investigation by Chief Warrant Officer Sarah Sunhill (played by Madeleine Stowe), investigator specialised in sex crimes. Although they have much bigger powers than civil investigators, Brenner and Sunhill find many obstacles in investigation due to unofficial code of silence among base staff, including Colonel Bob Moore (played by James Woods), victim’s commanding officer. Two of them nevertheless discover many bizarre details from Elizabeth’s private life and clues that mystery might have something to do with traumatic event from her past.
Script for The General’s Daughter was written by two screenwriters, of which one - William Goldman – was famous and the other – Christopher Bertolini – was not (the latter would in 2011 write script for military-themed science fiction spectacle Battle: Los Angeles). The script at times hints at some kind of feminist and progressive political message, deploring not only abuse of women but also persecution of gays in US military during “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” era. This is, however, of little concern to director Simon West who tries to stuff as much action scenes in the film, which does little but extends the running time at almost two hours. The plot is quite predictable and full of cliches and even the respected character actors like James Cromwell, James Woods and Clarence Williams III at times seem embarrassed to star in the film. Same can be said even for its biggest star John Travolta. At the end, The General’s Daughter proves to be just another example of Hollywood’s hypocrisy. All the film’s alleged feminism is compromised with the scenes of rapes directed in titillating and exploitative manner; tolerance for “alternative lifestyles” is reserved only for homosexualism, while S/M practices are shown as symptom of serious mental dysfunction. The General’s Daughter was disliked by critics, but had more than decent results at box office, mostly on the account of Travolta’s star power. Today’s audience, however, should not spend two hours of their precious time on this film.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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