Heartbreak Ridge

Rating: 4/10 (15 November 2010)

I knew immediately from the title who the lead actor was, I think that's pretty much the only thing that persuaded me to watch it, so I did. Basically Sergeant Thomas Highway (Clint Eastwood) is a hard, tough veteran of Korea and Vietnam back in the United States Marine Corps, and he is assigned to train a reckon unit. These young soldiers look like a bunch of rookies, and Highway met one of them, Corporal 'Stitch' Jones (Jaws: The Revenge's Mario Van Peebles), so as Gunnary Sergeant he is going to be pretty tough. Highway gives strict discipline, forcing the soldiers to wear the same top as him, get up very early in the morning, go through gruelling drills and exercises, and they are sick of it. The recruits slowly go up a gear in their training, so Highway does slowly grow in confidence that they can go to war in a real battle, and eventually they do. While Highway tries to rekindle something with waitress Aggie (Marsha Mason), he and his now real soldiers fight against the enemy on the beaches of Grenada, and they come back triumphant. Also starring Everett McGill as Major Malcolm A. Powers, Moses Gunn as Staff Sergeant Webster, Eileen Heckart as Little Mary Jackson, Bo Svenson as Palace Bar Owner Roy Jennings, Boyd Gaines as Lieutenant M.R. Ring, Arlen Dean Snyder as Master Sergeant Major Choozoo, Vincent Irizarry as Fragetti and Ramón Franco as Private Aponte and Tom Villard as Profile. Eastwood is alright as a swearing dill sergeant reminiscent of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, well actually quite a bit of the film is reminiscent of it, with a little mix of what became Jarhead. You won't mind the first training half, and the second half with loads of guns blazing and an explosion or two is alright, it isn't a very inventive film, but it's not a bad war drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Sound. Okay!