This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Fantastic!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is the female version of G.I. Joe, where Demi Moore plays Jordan O'Niell, a female trainee in the US Navy who is sent to the SEAL/C.R.T. selection program. There, O'Neill endures a grueling and inhumanly punishing regime, but is determined to stay put and prove to everyone that she is capable of completing her training and is worthy of her spot in the Navy program.Moore played the part pretty well, pulling off the macho role convincingly and proved she is a strong person to stand up to her all-male peers. Viggo Mortensen played the tormenting Chief John James Urgayle well - cunning, vicious and villainous. The rest of the cast consisted of the male officers, who also pulled off pretty convincing military roles. Them doubting O'Niell's ability to join the Navy and mocking her determination provided some intrigue in the movie. The scenes of the officers having to dig through food scraps from garbage bins for dinner and them listening to boring music while taking a test late at night were haunting.The movie has a pretty fast moving plot and a nice touch of action, albeit some scenes were too gritty and over-the-top in my opinion, and much of the cinematography and visual were too dark. But overall, it's not a bad film; makes you feel the pain and grueling process of being in the military.Grade B-

For Al Bundy, chicks comes from the « big (g)uns » magazine. « Top Gun » is the famous movie with Cruise joining the military. So, my title should be clear now as « GI Jane » is about a woman enlisting. As the actress is Demi, it's funny to see that she has explored all the scale of her femininity : to the extreme low here as being a soldier to the extreme high when she played a striper in « striptease ». It would be interesting to hear her feelings about those experiences but as a GI, she was more stunning as she dressed with the uniform instead of doing push up. Beyond this fashion note, the movie is a terrible tool for the cause of feminism : the explanation for her opportunity is totally lame as the arguments are drowned under a poor political scheme and they miss the target every time (her period, the lesbian threat ,…). Worst, this angle isn't used to dynamite the old, usual, unsurprising evolution of those military school movies : at first, the recruits suffer, then, some of them oppose, but at the end, they prove their value during an operation. Indeed, this movie is just drills after drills, with instructors shouting in megaphone. Finally, it's a propaganda for uncle Sam's military and never is questioned why the so-called first democracy in the world needs a such big army. Nobody wonders the legitimacy of their operation faraway of their coast and the fact that they are the first to kill in the desert state (wasn't it so an aggression ?). Thus, it made me realize that Ridley Scott is far away to have the credibility of a Spielberg or a Coppola. He is just an aesthete that sells his art to corporations and as long they pay for it, he doesn't ask questions (see also his « body of lies »). The only good surprise here was Viggo Mortensen as the instructor. He is excellent to depict authority with a certain heart so he was indeed at the right place here.

G.I.Jane has some obvious flaws. Not the least of which is when Demi Moore walks into the mess with obviously no bra on under her white tee shirt. No self respecting female trying to get into the world of a macho, hyper-testosterone fueled job would do anything to accentuate her femininity. No makeup,no feminine underwear,nothing that makes her different than a male recruit. A fact shown to good example when Moore shaves all her hair off during a break and I give her credit for actually doing it and not faking it by wearing a wig. That takes guts. As someone who has been through something similar,I can tell you that not being wanted in a group of men elicits a type of behavior in a group mentality that would never happen if the man was alone. I really enjoyed this film despite some of its problems at suspending disbelief. For example, when the master chief is looking at the exercise where the recruits are in the rain, climbing forward on their bellies under barbed wire, he's "seeing" the action that wouldn't be possible through a scope or binoculars. Another is when each team in is the water and picked up "on the go" as the inflatable rafts rush by. Each male is given help by someone inside the raft and hoisted up inside. Yet when Moore's character turn comes, there is no help and she slips back into the water. She's unable to do it but is later criticized by the Master Chief for not being able to lift her "own body weight." Well, we don't know if that's so or not, as all the males were helped getting inside. There are other instances of such examples but the thing that makes this film work for me is I know how it feels to be unwanted and be considered incapable of doing what's considered typically a "man's job." The politics and technical mistakes aside, the real essence of the film is if a woman wants to fight for her country she should be able to.

The Whole Concept Addressed: This movie must have been put out by some feminist organization trying to promote women in the military into more combat positions. Personally, I don't mind women in the military, but I am against women directly in combat. It's nasty business and no woman should be slinging a gun, going toe and fist; knife in hand on a combat field only to get captured, raped, and tortured by the enemy. What woman in her right mind would want to do this anyway? As for the plot; it was so glamorized by Hollywood & unrealistic, I laughed. Real SEAL CRT Training has little resemblance to the way it is portrayed in this movie. However, the movie keeps you entertained, esp with HOTTIE, Demi Moore. I would say it is worth seeing.A Better alternative to this movie: Act of Valor is about real Navy SEALS in action. Now that is a good movie!