'G.I. Jane': A real American hero?

By Joshua Rich
Daily Arts Writer

Demi Moore stars as Jordan O'Neil in Ridley Scott's dark and sweaty "G.I. Jane."

In Ridley Scott's "G.I. Jane," Demi Moore once again defies logic by posing as a blockbuster-caliber movie star who has little screen presence and no understanding of how to convincingly say a line.

Indeed, "G.I. Jane" is perhaps the most ridiculous vehicle for such a cinematic zero; the rock-video boot camp romp demands of its female lead a certain dominant presence beyond her rippling muscles and flat tummy. (Since it is a Demi Moore flick, we are privy to many juicy shots of her sexy, albeit artificial bod.)

As Navy SEAL-aspirant Jordan O'Neil, the affectless Moore does little but make military training look sexy, which it inherently isn't. To be sure, "G.I. Jane" comes off more like a sadomasochistic Madonna video set in Vietnam than a bona fide pensive drama.

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The plot of the film is negligible. After some nonsense occurs with a lady senator (Anne Bancroft, who comes off as the world's biggest bitch since women of power can never be accepted as the nice folks they are), Jordan is summarily chosen as the first woman to go through combat training because, we are told, she looks like the least lesbian of the candidates. She is also expected to fail.

The rest of the film, then, is a monstrous montage of boot camp abuses at the hands of sinister Master Chief Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen), including scenes of soldiers swimming fully-clothed in freezing water and eating food out of garbage cans. I guess this, the most grueling training on Earth, is what makes a real man.

Unfortunately, the film dwells too much on the idea that Jordan must be made into a man in order to succeed. From the start, the guinea pig woman resents her special treatment as a member of the fairer sex. She demands equal treatment, moving into the men's barracks, and, in a truly flat scene played up as the movie's centerpiece of golden feminine liberation, she shaves her long hair to some intended motivational music. While perfectly aware that soul assassination is a staple of military training, I didn't realize that defeminization is also a prerequisite.

Viggo Mortensen raises hell as designated bad guy Master Chief Urgayle.

By too closely intertwining the idea of the military and masculinity, "G.I. Jane" neglects what should have been it's important message. Viewers are by now so jaded that we expect soldiers to be super-macho, when in fact most warriors aren't. Women shouldn't be in combat because they can be hyper-masculine like the next guy. Rather, they should be in combat because they, as American citizens, deserve to protect the country like anyone else. I don't see any reason why Jordan couldn't go into combat with her femininity and dignity still intact (all of which is completely lost when she informs the bad guy that he can "suck my dick," and then seriously kicks his ass when he tries to sodomize her).

In this terribly misbegotten film, Ridley Scott has taken a highly politically charged topic and rendered it completely impotent. What should be an exceptionally provocative movie like his earlier triumph "Thelma & Louise" is nothing more than a mere snarling action flick (something that one might expect from his brother Tony, of testosterone-overdrive films like "Top Gun" and "Crimson Tide").

As an ambitious lady Senator, Anne Bancroft proves she's no longer Mrs. Robinson.

Still, this director is up to his same old tricks. His movie lacks any inkling of the subtlety on which fine cinema is made. "G.I. Jane" is plagued by gratuitous elements including soldiers marching with condoms on their big rifles. Like "Alien" and "Blade Runner" and "Black Rain" before it, "G.I. Jane" is very dark and sweaty, so that Jordan's situation appears more bleak than anything imaginable. And it certainly does - the boot camp scenes are definitely exciting, and Moore looks awfully tough with scars covering her stony, shaved head.

Scott no doubt put a lot of effort into buffing-up his cream puff movie just as his otherwise vacant leading lady did to her figure. It's too bad he didn't make an equal effort to give "G.I. Jane" a viable purpose.

09-03-97