The General's Daughter (DVD)

...know. To keep with the theme of my more recent film reviews I am going to use another John Travolta film as my subject: The General’s Daughter. I first saw this film when it was released in the cinema and now own it on DVD. It is far from a masterpiece of filmmaking but is certainly entertaining enough to be watched more than once.

** Background **

The General’s Daughter can be broadly described as a thriller. It is ...
...Raider, and is based on the novel of the same name written by Nelson DeMille. The story has been adapted for the screen by Christopher Bertolini and William Goldman.

** Storyline **

Sgt. Frank White is preparing for an arms deal in a couple of days. Along with another soldier they are going to sell a large number of guns to a member of the public. The only problem for the other soldier involved in the trade and the buyer ... more

After having something of a break from film reviews and I back to what I know. To keep with the theme of my more recent film reviews I am going to use another John Travolta film as my subject: The General’s Daughter. I first saw this film when it was released in the cinema and now own it on DVD. It is far from a masterpiece of filmmaking but is certainly entertaining enough to be watched more than once.

** Background **

The General’s Daughter can be broadly described as a thriller. It is directed by Simon West, who has done films like Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and is based on the novel of the same name written by Nelson DeMille. The story has been adapted for the screen by Christopher Bertolini and William Goldman.

** Storyline **

Sgt. Frank White is preparing for an arms deal in a couple of days. Along with another soldier they are going to sell a large number of guns to a member of the public. The only problem for the other soldier involved in the trade and the buyer is the Sgt. White is actually military investigator Paul Brenner. Brenner has been working under cover using a stereotypical southern image for a couple of months to crack this deal. Needless to say the deal goes bad and has an all action ending.

With this case wrapped up only minutes earlier, Brenner gets a call from his commanding officer telling him to get over to the scene of a homicide. This is not any ordinary homicide though for a number of reasons. Firstly, it appears as if the victim has been stripped, spread-eagled, bound, raped and tortured prior to being murdered. Secondly, the victim’s name is Capt. Elisabeth Campbell, daughter of Lt. Gen Joseph Campbell.

Lt. Gen Campbell is due to retire in the coming weeks and is looking forward to a career in politics by pursuing a vice presidential nomination. The publicity that would surround this sort of investigation could be damaging to his future campaign so that army is very keen to solve the murder quickly and keep the investigation quiet.

To help solve the case Brenner is given the assistance of Sara Sunhill, a rape councillor. There is romantic history between Brenner and Sunhill, making their cooperation slightly more complicated. With the upcoming retirement of Lt.Gen Campbell the pressure is on Brenner and Sunhill to find and convict a suspect quickly and quietly. Elisabeth’s commanding officer, Col. Robert Moore, seems most likely to hold the key to the investigation but his cryptic answers, mind games and lack of cooperation make finding the truth difficult. The problem is that as the truth unfolds it becomes harder and harder to contain the story.

** Characters **

Paul Brenner – played by John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Basic) is a military investigator working at Fort MacCallum. Initially seen in the film undercover as Sgt. Frank White, Brenner is a tough military investigator who gets results. He has a no-nonsense attitude but is intelligent in his investigation and questioning.

Sara Sunhill – played by Madeleine Stowe (We Were Soldiers) is a rape investigator working at Fort MacCallum. Sunhill has previously been romantically involved with Brenner but is professional enough to put any difficulties aside to solve the murder.

Lt. Gen Campbell – played by James Cromwell (Blackball) is a retiring general. Wishing to pursue a career in politics and more specifically a nomination for vice president Campbell is to retire from the army in a couple of weeks. The murder of his daughter almost seems to take second place to his political aspirations although he is clearly upset at this loss.

Capt. Elisabeth Campbell – played by Leslie Stefanson (Unbreakable) is the daughter of Lt. Gen Campbell. Elisabeth is found murdered on a remote training range. Her murder appears to have been brutal. Elisabeth appears to several skeletons in the closet that when uncovered will reveal a little more about the motives for her murderer.

Col. Robert Moore – played by James Wood (Any Given Sunday) is Elisabeth’s commanding officer. Working in psychological operations, Moore is a very deep individual who enjoys analysing everything. He distracts from his answers during questioning by detailing the implications of the questions and is normally vague or cryptic in his responses.

** DVD Extras **

Regular readers of my film reviews will know that I tend not to pay much attention to the extras on DVD’s, but for those who is interested here what’s available on this DVD.

2 Theatrical Trailers
4 Deleted scenes including an alternate ending
Director commentary
Behind the scenes featurette

** My Opinion **

Although I have seen this film a number of times I would be lying if I tried to build it up as a great film. It is a film built on a tried and trusted formula and attempts to add just enough character to make it stand out from the crowd. There is nothing ground breaking in terms of filmmaking here so if that is what you are after probably not worth reading on. If you like your thriller films and are not feeling adventurous then this film does have plenty to offer.

Given that the basics of this film are nothing original, then there must be something about the film to hold the viewers interest. This is where the storyline and the characters have a big part to play. The storyline is certainly good enough to hold interest and provides enough suspense and character development to make the film a success. What is good about the character and story development is the way they are intertwined, but more about that later. The story unfolds at a good pace throughout the film and holds enough suspense to make this thriller worth watching.

Probably the next thing to say about this film is the strength of the cast. There are big name actors to be found right throughout the cast, including many peripheral roles in the story. For example, James Wood has a relatively small part to play as Col. Robert Moore, although it is quite an important part in the development of the film. Similarly James Cromwell has a small but crucial part to play in the development of the plot.

A strong cast does not always guarantee good performances and a good film, but in this case the acting is good with the whole cast doing everything that is asked of them. The final production is in no way let down by the performances of the cast, who perform well in some uninspiring characters.

I have mentioned before how I think Travolta is well suited to this sort of army role and he again performs well in the role. In contrast to some of his other roles similar to this though there is little character development for Travolta to get his teeth into and he is restricted to a fairly bland role. Travolta generally performs very well with what this role has to offer but does show flashes of why he so often comes in for some criticism. When performing his undercover role at the beginning of the film he uses this terrible southern style accent, which is far from well performed. Strangely though this doesn’t detract too much from the film, although it does give something of a comical side to the opening couple of scenes. Travolta should take it as an indication of his strengths though and consider it when taking on future roles.

Madeleine Stowe stars as Brenner’s co investigator and puts in a solid performance. Similar to Travolta’s role, there is not much character development for Stowe to get into, but she does what is required of her very well. Acting as second fiddle to Travolta for most of the film, there is not much to Stowe’s character but she works well with what is available.

As I have mentioned above there is not too much character development for the two lead characters. There is plenty of character development in the film though in the form of the important peripheral characters. Elisabeth Campbell is probably the most developed character despite being murdered early on in the film. The character is only seen briefly prior to her murder and isn’t really introduced until after her death. The development of this character is integral to the continued suspense in the storyline.

Col Robert Moore and Lt Gen Campbell are also well developed as characters throughout the film. Both are interesting characters and really add depth to the storyline.

** Memorable Quotes **

“. . . the murderer may be in this room, sitting all smug and shiny, until we walked in, and now maybe he’s a little less smug and a little less shiny, and that’s pretty cool!”

** More Information **

For a different description of the film and full cast listing check out imdb at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144214/.

** Warning **

This film does contain scenes of rape, violence and sex and may cause offence to some viewers.

** Availability **

At the time of writing, this film is available on Amazon for around £9. Failing that it is widely available on most Internet DVD vendors.

** Overall **

I would certainly recommend that if you are a fan of this genre then you should see this film. It is one of the better thriller films I have seen and offers good story and character development. If you are looking for something a little different then this is probably not for you.

Thanks for reading 

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