If strong people who just happen to be women provoke you, then this is not a film for you.

Rating: 9/10 (13 May 2017)

Jordan O'Neill (Demi Moore) is selected to be one of the test subjects in an attempt to explore the possibility to change the policies for women in the navy. Unsurprisingly, there's more than one agenda in the mix.
Yes, this is kind of a flat film. Yes: it has flaws. Yes, it's ridiculously predictable. But do I love this film or what? It's one of my dearest feel good films of all time. I think Ridley Scott managed to capture a few real issues in a film that is essentially an amusing and very simple story. The actors do a great job and the story is straightforward, I think it is all it was intended to be.
Also, they beat each other up and there are helicopters and explosions.
***SPOILERS and annoyingly large wall of text below!***
The gender issue is so apparent it might as well be a joke, and in a lot of cases it is! Symbolic references to genitals everywhere. Maybe that's why it works so well. You want the jokes and extreme symbolism. And the helicopters and the violence.
There are two powerful women in this film, both of them are trying to make it, but while being a woman is part of the strategy for one of them, being treated as a person rather than a woman is vital for the other. DeHaven is trying to make a feminist statement as part of a (not so clean) political campaign, Jordan just tries to do what she wants in life, despite being a woman.
Jordan is victimised and diminished by basically all people around her, DeHaven being the most cruel of them all. At least C.O. Salem is honest. Even her partner is trying to hold her back to some extent, though he comes to respect her decision in the end. But Jordan never considers herself a victim and doesn't for one minute feel sorry for herself.
There is just critique and hopeless idiocy in a lot of the characters' reasoning: 1) Women in combat isn't a yes/no decision, because it IS true that men tend to become more protective towards women, and that IS problematic in a war situation (I just read a book on this, so I feel comfortable stating this). Ideology and reality have a tendency to clash. But this doesn't mean that we can't change this: by the time this film came out the policies for women were different from they are now, so apparently we are getting somewhere. 2) There is always someone who decides what is and what isn't politically correct, and while striving for equality, what is important and what is just for show? Does forcing "gender education" upon someone really make a difference or is it just antagonising? Even if I thoroughly dislike the character C.O. Salem and all his opinions, I get where he's coming from and it's not only the 50s.
How can we strive for equality when there are still people using their gender as justification or means to succeed? How can we look past "gender norms" when we are the ones upholding and creating them? And why are people not judged by what they bring to the table, when that should be the only thing that matters?