# An Officer and a Gentleman

An Officer and a Gentleman is a 1982 film about a United States Navy aviator Officer Candidate who comes into conflict with the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who trains him.
    Directed by Taylor Hackford. Written by Douglas Day Stewart.

## Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley

* [to the newly arrived recruits] I know why most of you are here; we weren't born yesterday. Before you get to join United Airlines and sell them what we teach, you gotta give the Navy six years of your life! Lots of things can happen in six years, including another war. And if any of you are too peace-loving to dump napalm on an enemy village where there MIGHT be women and children, that's what I'm here to discover...! I expect to lose half of you before I'm finished. I will use every means necessary — fair and unfair — to trip you up, to expose your weaknesses...as a potential aviator, and as a human being. The prize at the other end is a flight education worth $1 million! But first, you gotta get past ME.
* [to the newly-arrived male recruits] Not all the obstacles that can trip you up are on this base. Let me tell you something about the local girls. Ever since there's been a base here, there's been what you'd call the Puget Sound Debs. The poor girls come across the sound on the ferry every weekend with just one thing in mind, and that's to marry themselves a naval aviator. A Puget Deb will tell you, "Don't you worry about contraceptives. I've got that all taken care of." Don't believe it, sweet pea. A Puget Deb will do anything and say anything to trap you. I know this sounds silly, especially in this so-called modern age, but you scuzzy college pukes should watch out, because they're out there, and you, sweet peas, are the answer to their dream!

## Dialogue

    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: [pulls a patch off Mayo's arm, revealing his tattoo] Hey, this is really wonderful work! Where'd you get this, Mayo?
    Zack Mayo: Subic Bay, Philippines, sir.
    Foley: I thought I recognized the work. Be proud of them wings. They're the only ones you're gonna leave here with, Mayo-naise!
    Zack Mayo: What do you want? You want to fuck? Is that what you want? You wanna fuck? All right, come here. Get on the bed. Take your clothes off. I'll give you a good fuck.
    Paula Pokrifki: Where's that coming from?
    Mayo: Get on the bed.
    Paula: I wouldn't fuck you now if my life --
    Mayo: Then get the hell out of here, because I don't need this shit.
    Paula: I don't know who you think you're talking to, you know. I'm not some whore you brought in here. I'm trying to be nice to you. I'm trying to be your friend, Zack.
    Mayo: Well, then be a friend. Get out of here.
    Paula: Fine. Fine. You know, man. You ain't nothing special. You got no manners. You treat women like whores. And if you ask me, you ain't got no chance of being no officer.
    Paula Pokrifki: Zack, when you're through with a girl, what do you do? Do you you say something or do you just...disappear?
    Zack Mayo: I never had a girl.
    Lionel Perryman: Shit. I am not going to make it. [takes out a belt buckle] Help me out, Sid. You got a spare, man?
    Sid Worley: My spare sucks. You know where the hardware store is.
    Perryman: Zack, I need a buckle, man.
    Zack Mayo: I can't risk it.
    Perryman: You still have plenty of time, man. He's still up with the girls.
    Mayo: Can't do it.
    Perryman: Hey Zack, I got to see my family, man. I couldn't take it if he didn't let me out of here this weekend.
    Mayo: Wouldn't want you to get an honor violation, Perryman.
    Perryman: Okay.
    Worley: [as Foley enters] Attention on deck!
    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: In every class, there's always one joker who thinks that he's smarter than me. In this class, it happens to be you, isn't it, Mayo-naise? [pokes the ceiling tile above Mayo's bunk, revealing his contraband] Perryman, Worley, let us have this room. On the double.
    Perryman: Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
    Worley: Stow it!
    Foley: Mayo, I want your DOR.
    Mayo: No, sir. You can kick me out of here, but I ain't quitting.
    Foley: Get into your fatigues, Mayo. By the end of this weekend, you'll quit.
    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: You only give a shit about yourself. All your classmates know it. Do you think they would trust you behind the controls of a plane? You'd probably zip off in my F-14 and sell it to the Cubans.
    Zack Mayo: No, sir! No, sir! I love my country.
    Foley: Sell it to the Air Force, Mayo. Sell it to the Air Force! Talk to me. Now why would a slick little hustler like you want to sign up for this kind of abuse?
    Mayo: I want to fly jets, sir.
    Foley: My grandmama wanted to fly jets.
    Mayo: I wanted it since I was a kid!
    Foley: We're not talking about flying here. We're talking about character!
    Mayo: I've changed. I've changed since I've been here.
    Foley: The hell you have.
    Mayo: I've changed, sir!
    Foley: No, you've just polished up your act a little bit. You just shined it up! Now tell me what I want to hear. I want your DOR.
    Mayo: No sir.
    Foley: I want your DOR.
    Mayo: I ain't gonna quit.
    Foley: Spell it! D-O-R.
    Mayo: I ain't gonna quit!
    Foley: Yeah, then you can be free. You and your daddy can get drunk and go whore-chasing together!
    Mayo: No, sir!
    Foley: DOR.
    Mayo: I ain't gonna quit!
    Foley: Alright then, you can forget it! You're out!
    Mayo: Don't you do it! Don't you— I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g— I got nothing else.
    Foley: All right Mayo, on your feet.
    Zack Mayo: [sees Foley off-boarding Worley] What's going on. You didn't kick him out? Hey, wait a minute. Did he tell you what he's been going through?
    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: It doesn't matter what he's been going through. That's the whole purpose of this zoo. What does matter is that he freaked out for some reason at 25,000 feet, and that can't happen, ever!
    Mayo: You don't understand, sir. He's got a girl in town. She's pregnant. She's put him through hell!
    Sid Worley: It don't matter. That don't matter.
    Mayo: Don't matter? What do you mean? You've got two weeks left. You're out just like that?
    Foley: It can still happen to you too, Mayo-naise.
    Worley: He ain't bullshitting you, buddy.
    Mayo: [to Foley] I'm talking to you, motherfucker!
    Worley: Don't fuck it up for you, man!
    Foley: What did you call me?
    Mayo: I thought the DIs were supposed to help everybody out around here. What kind of human being are you?
    Foley: You better lock it up, boy. You're gonna be going home with him!
    Worley: Zack, go back to the barracks, please.
    Mayo: I don't get this. He's the best candidate in the class, the best student, best leader, the best friend to everybody. Can't you bend your god-damned rules for once?
    Worley: Zack, he didn't ask me to DOR. I went to him.
    Lynette Pomeroy: [after Sid asks her to marry him] Oh, Sid, let's do it right now! I wonder where we'll get stationed? I've always wanted to go to Hawaii!
    Sid Worley: Honey, we're not being stationed anywhere. I DOR-ed.
    Lynette: You what?
    Worley: I DOR-ed. I wasn't cut out to be a pilot. I was faking it. I've been faking everything up to now.
    Lynette: But what'll we do? Where would we go?
    Worley: Oklahoma. I'll get my old job back at JC Penney's. Hell, in two years, I'll be floor manager. You're going to love Oklahoma! You and mama will get along great. Money might be tight, so we'll live at home. It's going to work out.
    Lynette: Sid, there's no baby.
    Worley: What?
    Lynette: I'm not pregnant. I got my period this morning. There's no baby, Sid.
    Worley: I'll be god-damned. What do you say we get married anyway? I love you! I don't think I really knew that till just now, just this second. I have never been happier in my life than I have in the last seven weeks. I've never felt so relaxed, and I've never felt so loved for who I really am. Lynette, marry me. Make me the happiest man in the whole world.
    Lynette: I'm sorry, Sid, but I don't want to marry you. I really like you. We've had ourselves some really great times, but I thought you understood. I want to marry a pilot. I want to live my life overseas, the wife of an aviator. Damn you! God damn you! Nobody DORs after 11 weeks! Nobody!
    Lynette: [justifying why she dumped Sid] I don't want no Okie from Muskogee! I can get that right here, in Port Angeles; a dime a dozen, they are!
    Mayo: You little bitch! Who the HELL do you think you are? Playing with people like that! He LOVES you! And you just shit on him! [beat] You made this whole thing up, didn't you? There was never any baby, was there?
    Lynette: Of course there was a baby! I would never lie about something like that! Would I, Paula?
    [they look at Paula; Paula looks away]
    Mayo: [stares at Lynette with disgust, then walks away] You selfish tramp!
    Paula: God help you.
    Lynette: [as Zack and Paula are leaving] You're no different than I am, Paula!
    Paula: We both know that isn't true.
    Lynette: [as the door closes behind them] Oh, yes, it IS!
    Zack Mayo: Sir, this officer candidate requests permission to see you in private, sir.
    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: Mayo, the whole class already knows about Candidate Worley, and we're sorry.
    Mayo: Oh, I bet you are. I want to see you in private, sir.
    Foley: Not now. I'm busy.
    Mayo: Now!
    Foley: [to candidates] Forward!
    Mayo: Sir, I request permission— [Foley continues drilling] Sir, this officer candidate requests permission to see you in private, sir!
    Foley: Not now. I'm busy. So are you. Now get cleaned up!
    Mayo: I don't need your shit! I came back to quit. DOR!
    Foley: Platoon, halt!
    Mayo: I don't need you. I don't need the Navy. I don't need anybody.
    Foley: Okay, Mayo. I see what you want. You said you wanted to meet me in private? You got it!
    [upon graduation]
    Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley: Congratulations, Ensign Mayo.
    Zack Mayo: I'll won't ever forget you, Sergeant.
    Foley: I know.
    Mayo: I wouldn't have made this if it weren't for you you.
    Foley: Get the hell out of here.
    Mayo: Thank you, Sergeant.

## Taglines

* Life gave him nothing, except the courage to win... and a woman to love.
* It will lift you up where you belong.

## Cast

* Richard Gere - Zack Mayo
* Debra Winger - Paula Pokrifki
* David Keith - Sid Worley
* Robert Loggia - Byron Mayo
* Lisa Blount - Lynette Pomeroy
* Lisa Eilbacher - Casey Seegar
* Louis Gossett, Jr. - GySgt. Emil Foley
* Tony Plana - Emiliano Della Serra
* Harold Sylvester - Perryman
* David Caruso - Topper Daniels
* Victor French - Joe Pokrifki
* Grace Zabriskie - Esther Pokrifki
* Ed Begley, Jr. - Altitude Chamber Instructor (voice)

## External links

* An Officer and a Gentleman quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* An Officer and a Gentleman at Rotten Tomatoes