Taps (1981)

• 
  
  June 4, 2011

  blkbomb

  Taps is a decent movie but nothing spectacular. The plot is full of holes but still is entertaining. The thing that makes the movie worth the watch is the performances by Hutton, Penn, and Cruise. This is the movie that launched Penn's career and allowed him to go onto bigger and... read more better things. This was also only Cruise's second role. The story suffers a little from the impossibilities but the performances more than make up for it and make the movie worth the watch.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  January 10, 2011

  ajv2688

  So totally boring, I couldn't watch the whole thing. I may give it another chance one day if I hear anything good about it. There is a good cast, but other than that, it's not worth watching.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  July 2, 2009

  michaelcorleone

  Despite uniformly strong performances from a superb cast, this film fell short of my expectations. Conceptually speaking, it's perhaps a little far-fetched but I am willing to suspend my disbelief at times. Unfortunately, the screenplay takes the story to preposterous lengths and... read more ends up giving us a laughably unrealistic experience rather than an effective drama. Ontop of frequently sounding corny, the dialogue gives the characters bizarre traits and often unclear motives, so as an audience we have nobody to latch onto for this over-the-top ride. It's not painful to sit through thanks to the acting, but it's a dated and silly film.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  August 4, 2011

  Lemure

  What made this work for me is that they took a somewhat silly idea and ran with it, taking it seriously as they did. Like 'Misery', it's clever writing as the audience knows the idea is crazy as do the adults in the film, but the young cadets don't give in and in doing so come to... read more learn lessons about power and responsibility, not to mention being a child in an adult world. It was far better than I expected, and Sean Penn was a standout. Recommended.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 17, 2009

  donnarenee2006

  One of my favorite movies!!! Just added to my DVD collection. The actor I admired the most at the time, Timothy Hutton stars with Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, George C. Scott and Ronny Cox in this military academy drama. Cadets are informed that their school is going to be closed. An u... read morenfortunate event happens when town locals are taunting the cadets, where an accidental shooting happens. Soon cadets are fighting to keep their school open, and take on the Military as they refuse to give up for their right to stay open. A good movie with great performances by Penn and Cruise. Worth a watch.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  April 14, 2009

  leekyle1968

  Excellent movie, that started out a slew of stars. Good acting and overall storyline

  Share This Review
• 
  
  February 24, 2012

  cavemanlawyer91

  This movie is one of those great 80s teen dramas that defies sense, logic, and rationality. The legend of Sean Penn was clearly in the making here, as well as the idiosyncratic Tom Cruise. Also, I don't know who Timothy Hutton is but he did a stand up job as well. Performances we... read morere fantastic, but the premise is just so absurd that I cannot buy into it no matter how convincingly the parts were played.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 29, 2009

  jam233

  Impressive film, it's a little far fetched but it's still believable. The acting is excellent, especially Sean Penn in a very early role. Well edited, good score and cinematography. Very professionally made, good screenplay.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  June 12, 2009

  FangsFirst

  "Tom Cruise in his second film role!" a sticker proudly proclaims on the 25th anniversary release of this film. It seems to have been added later, possibly to push sales of the film by riding the name of the biggest star of the lot. Sort of a shame, because the film has some bett... read moreer actors in it--Timothy Hutton (fresh off of his Oscar-winning role in Ordinary People), Sean Penn, George C. Scott, Giancarlo Esposito, Ronny Cox. Unfortunately (?) none of them ever wandered into the "movie star" realm (except a brief flirtation in the 1980s for Penn) that means that you just plaster their name all over things and people take interest, whether it's good or not. I'm not saying Cruise is necessarily a bad actor, or even that his role doesn't intrigue me, but simply that this is just a tag that screams of marketing over anything interesting in the movie itself. At least Cruise's role is reasonably large and it isn't jumping on a cameo to sell it.
  
  At Bunker Hill Military Academy, Brian Moreland (Hutton) is part of the rising senior class, attending a brief and intimate dinner with the parting Cadet Major and the commander of the academy, General Harlan Bache (Scott), where he is promoted to Cadet Major, the head of the student body, for the next year. After this honour is bestowed, Moreland returns to his dormitory to see his roommate, Alex Dwyer (Penn) and fellow rising senior David Shawn (Cruise). Shawn has his company of "red berets" perform a drill in the hallway to honour Moreland, while J.C. Pierce (Esposito) congratulates him and offers to gather food for him from the care package fellow student Shovel (Jeff Rochlin). At the parade that celebrates the end of the school year, Bache announces the bad news--the school is to be closed in one year. Distraught but confident after a speech Bache gives Moreland in private, the students finally attend a last dance. Resentful "townies" catcall the dates the cadets are bringing and harass them from just outside the school grounds. A scuffle turns into a brawl, which Bache wades in to try to break up. When one of the locals jumps on Bache's back, he reaches around him and draws Bache's sidearm, the trigger squeezed in a brief moment, killing one of the locals. Bache is shocked that he managed to leave a round in the chamber and is carted away by the police. When a news report announces that now the school is to be closed immediately after this event, Moreland makes a plan to take back the school and hold it until they are given a chance to fight for its continuation. Many of the students who were to stay for the summer session join him in this, including even the youngest of cadets like Charlie Auden (Brendan Ward) and Derek Mellott (John P. Navin, Jr.). They take the arms that were stockpiled and hold the school against the police, accepting attempts by parents--including Moreland's own father, Master Sergeant Kevin Moreland (Wayne Tippet)--and eventually even the National Guard, represented by Colonel Kerby (Cox) as they doggedly fight to keep their school open and alive.
  
  It's interesting enough to hold a position like I do on the military, never really able to discuss it logically with many, and yet another to see a film like this. I am neither the overtly militaristic type nor the anti-military type, and don't get along terribly well with the most fanatical elements of either. I think that the overly emphatic beliefs of those who devote the entirety of their minds to the idea of war are disturbing and out of touch with reality to a dangerous extent. I do not mean those who devote their lives, necessarily, as it is one thing to devote a life, and another to devote one's mind entirely. The opposite side has this silly idea that somehow you can have a country in this world and not maintain a military, or criticizes the military for forcing soldiers to accept killing and death. On the first thought, it's absurd when you live in a world where there are other people who will only respect or give pause for competing power. It can incite and promote conflict, to be sure, but it's highly unlikely that any country would be let alone--especially one that maintains a large role in world affairs--if they did not keep any form of defensive force. It wouldn't necessarily have to be used, of course (such as in aggressive actions of any kind), but the absence seems absurdly naïve to hope for. The second note, of training soldiers to accept death, is only logical: it's the only way to perform that job. This is a very strange position to hold, it seems, neither sneering at soldiers nor feeling the urge to salute their "endless, amazing, perfect duty and sacrifice" or what have you. I am opposed to conflict, but not to the idea of a military.
  
  That's a pretty long discussion of my personal beliefs on the subject, I realize, but there's a reason for that. This film shows an interesting point of view on military training (even if it is technically civilian military training), with General Bache suggesting that Moreland should never be ashamed of humanity, and that it is humanity that keeps any leader from being a tyrant. The students are not all automatons or typically divisive. Shovel--whose name almost definitely comes from the idea of shovelling things into his face--is not constantly abused and taunted for his weight and eating, but neither is it ignored. "Plebs" (the new class of students) are harassed, but the understanding motivation of it, the idea that this is simply ritual, is actually conveyed to these new students instead of just openly abusing them. Few seem to be on power trips, or of that dangerous sort of future soldier that just wants to shoot things--with the notable exception of the overly aggressive Shawn. It's a view that building military leaders is an honourable affair, not something derided by director Harold Becker for its "insane militarism" nor steeled to a sharpened edge of "awesome badassness." Shawn is shown as dangerous--as either side of the issue should think he is--but nearly everyone else is muddled. Dwyer is not quite the sharp student that Moreland is, but Moreland is truly friends with him and respects him. He's also not a slacker in an open caricature sense, having a greater sense of humour and a more open conscience than anyone else, but never derided as a poor cadet for this reason.
  
  It's a fascinating approach that makes the films points a lot easier to understand and digest. This is a stance that is rarely taken, with films usually either promoting the military agenda or slaughtering it wholesale, in either end case only ever preaching to the converted. The military and the building of officers is treated with respect and honour, drills, marching and the skills and leadership the school builds and maintains all being portrayed as affairs of disciplined and honourable intention. The military approaches Moreland begins to use to control the campus are not ruthless or bloodthirsty, and are rooted in this sense of honour he was given by General Bache. His motivation is solid and good, his intentions as well, and his actions, while not terribly smart or good, are generally well-carried out and reasonable, insofar as such actions can be. It's only after they've hold up in the school for multiple days that it begins to come clear what the movie is saying. This isn't a deplorable action by rebellious students as the outside world thinks (the outside world being a little cartoonish, but this is offset when it is contrasted with the cadets), it's a misguided action by cadets who mistake themselves for full soldiers. They have enough training that it ends up a relatively professional affair, but they are still young and not yet ready to take on the responsibility of the entire action for themselves. Most of the adults from the outside world bear nothing of Bache's respect for his students and deride them openly as insane or mere children, with only Kerby attempting in any fashion to actually understand and reach Moreland. He treats him with respect without pretending his actions are acceptable, but that only proves that Moreland is too lost in his nebulous definitions of "honour" and "duty" to really perform any action so grand.
  
  For a cast this young, this is very well carried out. Scott (who, of course, is one of the ones who isn't young) has an unusually pleasant warmth to his role (at least, as compared to what I've seen him in before), being truly fatherly and kind to his students, respecting and honouring them in everything he does without going terribly lax on the discipline they are there to learn and receive. Hutton has wandered into a role that is pretty tough and full right after a similarly difficult one, and he proceeds admirably. A verbal confrontation between Kerby and Moreland through a fence manages to highlight both the skill of Cox and Moreland and of editor Maury Winetrobe, with some nods to Becker and those behind the cameras. There are lingering shots of purely physical emotional reactions on these characters that don't feel forced but contain no words, showing that Moreland is losing his grip on his belief in the righteousness of his cause just as he attempts to deal with the grief of the unfortunate happenings that have led to this conflict in the first place. It's a telling shot for Hutton especially, showing a fight to maintain the emotional neutrality that will allow him to carry this out as his grief and frustration fight to break him down. Penn is caught in that most interesting role, the slacker who is not quite a slacker, who is respected even by the best students, a truly good friend despite whatever flaws he has as a student. Cruise is the most caricatured of the characters, a hothead who wants nothing more than to be a soldier--so he can shoot things. He treats the whole thing like kids playing war, never fully recognizing the reality of actual conflict and death, the thing that Moreland struggles to acknowledge maturely despite never being given the chance to deal with the idea. Cruise is very solid and believably out of control, but isn't doing anything terribly complex at the same time. Evan Handler (who would go on to various sarcastic, vaguely-weaselly roles in the last decade or two) portrays yet another of the commanding officers, Lieutenant West, who is torn by a devotion to Moreland and a recognition that this is all out of their control, possibly the most mature of all the responses any of them has to the events. Esposito is a sort of a sidelong mirror to Penn, playing J.C. not as a polar opposite, but as another cadet who respects, admires and likes Moreland and does his duty, but does it more as a duty born of respect than friendship. He is not dropped completely into the role of regimented soldier, but he's edging more toward a soldier with hints of civilian than Penn's openly civilian attitude.
  
  This isn't a perfect movie, of course, as the entire concept raises some questions as to what on earth would possess anyone to think that taking a school by force was a good way to be heard, but that is sort of the point at the same time. Even the very young Ward and Navin manage to bring a lot of character to their roles as "pleb" freshmen, mixing that growing sense of pride and duty with the fear of very young children. It's disconcerting to say the least, but that's the point as well: these are kids-in-training, not full-fledged soldiers, and they are not really prepared emotionally for this, no matter how well-trained they may be. The film is absolutely successful at this, and clever at choosing a back door into this idea and message, avoiding insult to the cadets it's portraying while criticizing them harshly but reasonably.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  May 26, 2009

  adjobs

  if there's something worth fighting for, fight for it with all your heart, but don't get lost in the battles.

  Share This Review

• George C. Scott as Gen. Harlan Bache
• Timothy Hutton as Brian Moreland
• Ronny Cox as Col. Kerby
• Sean Penn as Alex Dwyer
• Tom Cruise as David Shawn
• Brendan Ward as Charlie Auden
• Evan Handler as Edward West
• John P. Navin Jr. as Derek Mellott
• Billy Van Zandt as Bug

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

• 
  Platoon (0%)
• 
  Top Gun (68%)
• 
  All the Right Moves (50%)
• 
  Toy Soldiers (100%)

• In Home Alone, What does Marv always do to the houses they have just burgled ?  Answer »
• What was the first movie that Sean Penn graced our screens on?  Answer »
• The uniforms wore in the movie Taps were the normal uniforms cadets wore ?   Answer »
• Sean Penn's film debut was in Taps?  Answer »

No quizzes for Taps. Want to create one?

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

• jjb3332003
• lguzman21
• gotphish
• contrafilms
• kimwarden
• pauljalessi
• ambrose255
• jakemeehan1

No recent headlines. Got one?

• 

  Actors: Tom Cruise

  by nillywilly
  33 Movies
• 

  BELICAS

  by antoniogonzale...
  17 Movies
• 

  1981

  by Blaxunshine
  66 Movies
• 

  fox

  by brooksy720
  423 Movies
• 

  Recommended by Flixster Friends 4

  by LisaMJ
  369 Movies

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?