Movies-TV

Since when are movies supposed to be realistic?

give me a break people- "This movie was a real disappointment. Laced with inaccurate facts and utterly unrealistic scenarios."- since when are movies supposed to be realistic or accurate. if you're the kind of person that bases how good a movie is on how realistic it is then you've gotta be a very dull person. how do you even know the filmmakers wanted it to be realistic? it was a great movie with a great story, it doesn't matter that it's not realistic. if they start to make only realistic movies i'm gonna shoot myself, because movies ARE NOT supposed to be realistic. if you want something real go watch a frickin biography! this is a good movie with a good story and great action scenes.

Opinions are like...

Just take a look at the wide range of thoughts here and nowhere else is this truer. People who have been in the military saying it's real and not, people who have not saying it's real and not, all challenging each other.Then we have the Ridley Scott is a moron/genius crew who compare this to other works as well as allowing it to stand on its own. Some compare it to war flicks, which it is not, though it is clearly military. Some compare it to Bruckheimer works etc. etc. whatever...On a personal note, for the men, this is a film that can appeal to the machismo side of hoo-ahh, while for women, it makes a statement whether that was its intended purpose or not. Regardless, if one is able to step away from preconceived notions and "suspend disbelief," it might be found to be entertaining.Because the DVD has no extras, we cannot know exactly what might have been intended other than to fill theater seats, which is the ultimate purpose of most Hollywood movies. I'm sure old interviews might be tracked down, but who cares, really?Technically, I think it is well done. I dug (spoilers) the ominous tone of the cinematography like a thunderstorm about to wash over one. I do agree with another reviewer that Demi Moore has picked some rotten tomatoes as far as works in which to star, but I thought this was one of her best. She definitely is something to look at here.For those whose ideas it does not support, get over it...unless you write and direct your own films, you are never going to be satisfied. This definitely is a cut above a lot of the other tripe out here pushing the gung-ho militaristic thriller way. If you don't think it original, just compare it to any Steven Seagal flick after his breakthrough work "Above the Law." Casey Ryback beats thugs to death on a train. Ryback beats 'em to death on a big boat. Nico Toscani is Casey Ryback in "Under Siege 7"...Still thinking about it..?

People just don't understand...

Do you know what the Navy SEAL/s do? Do you know their importance? Do you know how ... our government is? Probably not. You may think you know, but chances are, you are missing some key points. This movie does an excellent job of portraying the rigors of Navy SEAL training and the problem our military faces today...women fighting in combat. As a member of the Armed Forces, I view this movie as a good learning experience. Demi Moore plays an excellent part of a Navy Officer who is selected to train in Cornado, Califronia. This is the most intense training in the entire world. Although, some of the training in the movie is fake, it gives a good overview of BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition School). There are many other aspects in BUD/s training that the movie left out such as the Diving Phase, demolition/reconnaissance/land warfare phase. If a women can meet all the requirments a man can make, without cutting the corners, then there is no problem with women being in combat. All standards must be the same as the men. Good movie.

"I now turn you over, to Master Chief John James Urgayle."

The rating of this movie is farcical: GI Jane is wholly underrated. Women in positions that would by conventional logic require the physical aptitude and the presence of males is a subject that isn't broached often enough. I don't have an agenda as per the subject, but I feel that it's fascinating and worthy of further study. Demi Moore becomes a Navy SEALs, the most "intensive training program known to man." Usually there are two categories of these kinds of butch femme characters, sexy actresses who try to be tough soldiers, and actresses who convincingly portray soldiers. Demi is a little bit more of the former than latter, bringing her attitude on the platter of a nice body. The political play of the movie is disregarded as unrealistic. Why? It's obvious that much of this "women-in-combat" experiment is conducted at the highest levels of Congress and the Executive branch. The only thing that I could see happening in a scenario like this is a massive lawsuit by military figures to stop this woman going through BUD/S, unless they were co-opted by superior officers, which I think that they are in this film.Otherwise, I feel that the performances are quite excellent. GI Jane's Master Chief Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen) was one of the reasons I got excited to see LotR. All of the minor supporting roles, Anne Bancroft, the general who operates the SEAL base, all evince their roles with skill. The only complaint I have is with the shallowness of the supporting cast, such characters Slovnik and Cortez, both who doubt "GI Jane" with a passion bordering insubordinance. Their characters are highly unprofessional and in my opinion would lack the fortitude to execute orders in a real combat situation. A deeply underrated project whose commentary on the modern social ambiguities regarding gender and sex is pitiably ignored.

HOO RAH!!!

Damn boot camp looks hard. Note to self don't join the marines. Anyway this was good, Demi Moore gave a good performance and looked really determined to fit in, make the grade, and be treated like everyone else. I also like near the end when she was called out to active service. This movie's got enough story, violence, and determination to keep me interested and let me give it a good review.8 out of 10.

G.I. Jane

My partner's favorite movie. Demi is hot! Especially when she shaves her head.

SEALs are Excellent Support for the First Team

The Navy Seals get a lot of publicity, and they are extremely competent -- which likely is why they were chosen as the foil for political correctness in this film -- but if you analyze this plot carefully, the conclusion is unexpected though quite apparent.

A woman trains with Seal candidates. While on a final qualification exercise, her group is activated for a live mission. They perform the mission successfully.

So what was that mission? A U.S. satellite had crashed in an enemy country. A small unit of soldiers parachuted deep into enemy territory, avoided detection, located the satellite and carried it out, by hand and on foot, to the rendezvous point, where the Seals waited to assist their retrieval. So, who performed the REAL dirty work here? Answer: The U.S. Army Rangers. When the mission is the toughest,the United States always sends in our First Team to do the hardest part.

I liked it... that's all I can say

It's disconcerting to see Demi Moore in such a different role in her career. You can't imagine the main actress from Ghost as an elite military corps member until you see her. But the fact is that she does it, and I must say I don't dislike her work at all. Of course, this isn't a film for every taste (it's not a pacifist movie...), but you'll enjoy it if you like the films in the line of First Blood or The Dirty Dozen. At this point I can even say that this film is better to me than First Blood in some sense (for example, its perspective isn't so epic, and the characters are more human). The only things I don't like are the continuous zoom effects in the last part of the film. I still don't know what they are supposed to be... But there's good acting, good tempo, appropriate music, and, why not, another good production from Ridley Scott with which you don't have time to get bored. I also must say that after having watched the film I don't feel like joining the elite forces at all :-), but anyway my rating is 7 out of 10.

Entertaining and not so far fetched

I'm sure when this movie was first seen in theatres most of the cry baby men who were dragged to see it with their wives and girlfriends, kept saying, that could never happen, yeah right. Well, the first fact you must accept is, physical strength is not what gets you through physical challenges, liked boot camp and hell week. Because it isn't just physical, but mental, and emotional. And since sexist stereotypes about women were brought up about this movie I'm sure, here are some sexist facts about men. Not all men, but most men are not known for being emotionally strong, women are. Most men may have more physcial strength than women, but women have a higher tolerance for pain. I.E. Giving birth. Our bodies are built to endure different physical pain than men. Men can be babies when it comes to pain, emotion, and mental stress. Women tend to mature faster than guys because we grow up differently, as being the sensitive ones, like admitting when we are weak, and growing stronger as opposed to men who challenge themselves arrogantly, and hardly ever admitting to making a mistake. In G.I. gane, when master chief said it takes more than being tough he was right. It's more of a mental challenge when dealing with exhaustion, pain, hunger, and willpower. So it isn't impossible when you see men hitting the bell and quitting and demi moore is still kickin butt. Next, the parts when demi was teased for being a woman, and harassed about her tampons, it just shows you how immature military boys can be. When she first got there, in the cafeteria, the guys were saying "give me one night with her i'll straighten her out." She never once cried to her superior officer. She later did, but she took a lot of crap first, and she took it with dignity until she told her superior officer that it all started when he pulled out her chair, when she first came there. It wasn't like she named names and turned anyone in for harassing her and being unfair like they all were doing while she tried to complete her training. But again, it's just a movie, and you gotta admit, she was sexy in G.I. Jane!

Scott makes it float

If this film hadn't been directed by Ridley Scott or someone his caliber, it would have been a complete disaster. Luckily, he has some tricks up his sleeve that makes it worthwhile and actually kind of entertaining. The film is well shot, for example, with camera angles, mud and scenery to make up for the bad dialogue and sometimes average acting. Actually, this film could have made it fairly well without any dialogue...But it's just an average movie, no more, no less. Looking at some of Ridley Scott's other work, it doesn't stand a chance. But Demi Moore isn't so bad, for once.

G.I. Jane

What a dum stupid movie, big Hollywood money wasted. What the film makers and writers thinking, that one day women will be able to make it into Special Ops, like in the Army Special Forces, Delta Force, Navy Seal and Army Rangers. Special Ops is a man's world, the good old boys network. Even with that scence of a female senator helping Demi Moore make it and not be treated differently in training, does not work in the real world. No woman senator, will do that in the real world even with all the powers they got as a senator. Women should just stick to non special ops when joining the military like flying a attack chopper, work on a battle ship, carrier, be a fighter pilot in a f-14, f-18, and be part of non Special Operation forces like, the Army Air Caverly, Marine Expeditionary Units, the Army's Infantry Brigade and so on. Do the film makers think that in the real world women can do CQB, HALO and HAHO jumps, in to the jungles(Army Special Forces)and the ocean near the beach(Navy Seals), swim so far with their boots on in jungle rivers, live off the land and hang from a Blackhawk chopper. Those are just some of the things of Special Ops. The one thing best said was from one of this season epiosde of JAG, in which Mac had to go help a female Marine, afterwards, back at JAG Headquater AJ the head og JAG and Navy Seal during NAM called her in. The one thing MAC asked was "Do you think a woman will ever be a Navy Seal?" and AJ said "no" I have to say that sums it all up about women in Special Ops. I have never seen this movie and never will. I don't own it on DVD or VHS, and at any price it is not worth owning it in my view.

A film with a presupposed thesis

I enjoyed watching G.I.Jane as a picture disclosing and undermining stereotypes on femininity (and masculinity). In a way it certainly gives the voice to the "fairer sex" or "weaker sex" and lets a woman speak for herself. What I didn't, however, like about it was the "propaganda" attached to it. The film at the very beginning poses a thesis, which is clear to everybody ("Let's prove that a female may be an efficient soldier, at times better than the male ones"), and the story unfolds only to back up that thesis. I would say, an overtly political one. I guess it would be more interesting to watch G.I.Jane on her way to passing the mental and physical test without the "global", "political" background. The allusion to - perhaps - male dominated and male produced - discourse and politics of gender would still remain, but it would be less strident and more subtle.

Demi Moore's career falls after this movie.

This movie was catastrophically damaging to Demi Moore's career as a high paid female actress. The point here was that this movie gave an image of Demi Moore as being more masculine,and an image of a man,then her feminine public image. In plain English, she lost a lot of her male fans due to this image,and still haunts her career to this day. May have contributed to her divorse with her ex-husband Bruce Willis,and her fall as a highly paid female actress.

Decent movie to rent

It's what I expected from the movie when I watched it. An underdog being the 1st woman to try to make it into the Seal team by undergoing vigorous training.

Actually Worthwhile Until the End

This is another of those films for which I did not have high expectations. I expected a feminist rant slamming the Navy at each possible turn. That is not what it was.

Demi Moore plays a naval officer. As a political experiment, she is allowed to enroll in training with the SEALS. I expected her to face chauvinist obstruction and she did. What surprised me is that she did so for all the right reasons: she wanted to be one of the best. Being the "first woman" was a sideshow run by the politicians, not her. Bravo! She handled the situation with dignity and courage. That was completely unexpected.

I have inner turmoil about allowing women into the combat specialties. Some of the reasons for this are probably more valid than others but I cannot fault the women who simply want to serve and be the best they can be. Demi Moore portrays this type of admirable woman in this film and it is interesting for the first three quarters. It falls down at the end, though.

When she actually gets her first deployment, the story bogs down and does not see very realistic or edifying. Still, the effort was worth it.

Thus far, the review has been of the film. It was much better than expected. The DVDs, however, flunk. ON two separate ones, I got about halfway through the movie and then the disk wanted to skip around. The last quarter was completely unviewable. The third DVD did work and the effort needed to see the end was not justified by the end.

Give me a break...

I sat down with an open mind to watch this film, but by the end I discovered I was wearing a sneer that took hours to fade.This film is an insult to the professional instructors of all US special forces schools, the students who attend them and the small percentage of graduates who survive them.

The best movie of all time!

I am 15 years old, but I have watched this movie over a thousand times (I am not exaggerating) and I never get tired of it. This movie is my all time favorite movie. It is nice to see the Lt. O'Neil had the strength and the determination to go through with this although so many people tried to discourage her.

Was this garbage suppose to be a comedy?

I'll be short and to the point. This movie was an insult to any one with a room temperature IQ. Sorry liberals, feminists, etc. No women will ever be a Seal. They can forget about the draft or being in combat too. Ain't going to happen. You see, hard as it is to understand or accept, men and women are physically different.Regardless of the fact it is 2007,reality cannot change things in order for people to avoid having their feelings hurt. Men can't give birth or breast feed babies( Oh-I forgot about San Franfreako ).Women lack the physical strength to be on par with men in a combat or other physically challenging situations. How many women play in the NFL or NHL? Lastly, I couldn't give a bloody hoot in hell if what I just wrote upsets you.Come to think of it - if this does upset you that only warms my heart more. I didn't write one thing that wasn't the truth. This imbecilic movie is nothing more than a comedy and a lousy one at that.

"The Value of a Woman's Life?"

A recent post here, apparently by a woman with a military background, contained the comment "A woman's life is no more valuable than a man's".This mantra of the politically correct is not even true in a historical context. Societies have managed to recover from heavy losses of their male population, sometimes with astonishing speed. Germany, for example, was ready to fight another war in 1939 despite the 1914- 1918 war in which over two million of her men were killed. In South America, Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance (1865) took on three countries until virtually her entire male population was wiped out but fought again in the 1932 Chaco War against Bolivia.No society, however has or ever could survive the loss of its female population. Only when the very life of the nation is at stake are women sent to fight. Israel faced that situation in 1948 but since then has never considered coed combat units for its Defense Forces despite the popular image of the Israeli girl soldier."G.I. Jane" is Hollywood fluff.

Extra PT?

This movie was good as far as accuracy to the military as a whole. The one real problem I had with it was the fact that Demi Moore did extra physical training while she was supposed to be in her rack. I'm sorry I don't care what kind of metabolism you have, or even if you have extra respiratory organs, you can't do more training than what they already do in the SEAL program and cut-out sleep and expect to get stronger that way. If anything you'd eventually tire yourself into a chronic state of fatigue and get yourself disqualified.