TAPS

(December 1981, U.S.)

One of my favorite male screen chemistry, other than Paul Newman and Robert Redford, was Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, and it's a shame they never worked together again after THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN in 1986. In TAPS, Hutton has the edge over the still unknown Penn, from his significant attention from ORDINARY PEOPLE a year before. There's also the very unknown Tom Cruise who solidifies his own presence in this film. But for it's time, it's George C. Scott's legendary standing as an accomplished veteran actor that's meant to lure one's attention to the film. Surely, the man who mastered the character of George S. Patton is the one meant for a military role such as his.

The story follows the military school students at Bunker Hill Academy who take over their school in order to save it from closing. Cadet Brian Moreland (Hutton) has just been promoted to Cadet Major, the highest ranking student at the Academy. Admired and respected by his peers, he's the one who'll ultimately lead the revolt against the civilian bureaucracies responsible for closing a school with decades of honor and tradition to make way for their condominiums. Upon learning of the closing, the cadets are confident that they, along with their commander, General Harlan Bache (Scott) will be able to save their beloved school in the year that they have to do it. However, an accidental shooting of one of the local bullying teenagers outside the graduation ceremony ball sends Bache into police custody for manslaughter and accelerates the closing of the school by the board of trustees. The trauma of the event also causes Bache to have a heart attack and he's hospitalized in critical condition. Since Bache is ill, Moreland takes matters into his own hands by ordering his student colleagues to steal and hide all of the school's armory before it can be seized by the Dean and the local Sheriff. Demanding to meet with Bache and the trustees in return for the weapons, Moreland is nearly arrested himself when he's suddenly backed by his friends above, each of them with their weapon pointed at the powers-that-be that threaten their school's future. This is the image on the movie poster and it's one that could have you cheering for the underdogs.

Tensions escalate when cadets are forced to shoot their way out of a confrontational situation between themselves and more of the local townspeople. Now the police and the military are involved in what's turned into an armed standoff between Bunker Hill and the rest of the outside world. As the standoff continues to escalate in the days to come, the strength behind its resolve seems to slowly deteriorate as more and more students are caving in and "going over the wall", as it were, no longer believing in the cause they're fighting for. Even Moreland's best friend, Alex Dwyer (Penn) is steadily growing impatient with Moreland's military position over the other boys in an almost "godlike" fashion. Only David Shawn (Cruise) seems willing and ready to take things to their ultimate extreme in order to preserve what is right and just in their otherwise closed-off world, and he does in the end, when Moreland finally declares all of the boys to stand down following the accidental death of a twelve year-old cadet, and Shawn opens fire on the entire regimen of forces outside the school's main gate. There's actually something very "Tom Cruise" about the way he looks at his comrades for the last time while firing his machine gun and proclaims, "It's beautiful, man!", and is then riddled with bullets...

While TAPS may seem nothing more than male bonding drama of young talents that would later go on to bigger and better things, it's impossible not to recognize the similarities between it and LORD OF THE FLIES. Like those stranded British school boys in William Golding's classic novel, the boys of Bunker Hill must look after themselves in a world without grownups that's cut off from the rest of society. But because these boys are not in the position of fighting for their physical survival, their intentions and actions may seems all the more dangerous in that they must pick and choose how far they will go in order to uphold a cause they feel is worth fighting for. Survival brings on the necessity of actions which could almost be condoned, right or wrong. The cause, whatever it may be, requires more thought behind what is morally right and wrong. The boys of Bunker Hill are men of honor who live in a world where students on the outside often vandalize their schools, and this makes them appear all the more righteous. On the other of the coin is a strictly-disciplined education of minds and bodies that the rest of the world may regard as too different and unpopular from the norm. I know nothing of the true nature of real life military academies, so I'm in no position to judge right or wrong. I only know that in the fictional world of TAPS, Timothy Hutton, Sean Pean, Tom Cruise and George C. Scott are men who are talented enough to convince us that following them into battle, any battle, is the right thing to do.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Brian Moreland: "We have a home here! We think it's something worth defending!"