It is an emotional psychological drama, where the story revolves around a young marine named Zack Mayo. Zack is in trouble with the leader, where GySgt Foley is responsible for training and evaluation of the Zack. Zack has many challenges under tough training, but Zack eventually meets a pretty girl named Paula. This time Zack realizes that he wants something or that everything has changed.
The performances are uniformly strong, with Gere offering some of his best work -- though it pales in comparison with Gossett's tour de force as the tough, principled Sgt. Foley.
It's a straight-out drama in the old Hollywood style. As such, it works fairly well, though its lapses in taste are sour reminders of the subtlety Hollywood has lost in recent years.
Taylor Hackford's 1982 film is an awesomely, stiflingly professional piece of work, with a fleet, superficial visual style, perfectly placed climaxes, and a screenplay that doesn't waste a single character or situation.
An Officer and a Gentleman is a 1980s version that doesn't tamper much with the formula, but it does revitalize it, thanks to the erotic teamwork of Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
Not even the combined talents of Debra Winger and an Oscar-winning Louis Gossett Jr can turn this one into a great movie, but if you're in the mood for a wallow, it's perfect.
Macho, materialistic, and pro-militarist, it's an objectionable little number made all the more insidious by the way Hackford pulls the strings and turns it into a heart-chilling weepie.
An Officer and a Gentleman is the best movie about love that I've seen in a long time. Maybe that's because it's not about "love" as a Hollywood concept, but about love as growth, as learning to accept other people for who and what they are.
