SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
rzajac Cannot for the life of me understand why this flick doesn't rate in the top 250.How can I count the wonders of Taps? Production values are superb. The story is like a fine wine; like something Polanski would take on. The metaphor is ittedly stark--some might call it a one note johnny--but the development is an enthralling meander of telling detail; a litany of ritual acting-out; a thorough riffing on the jarring central theme, and doing so as well as with any fine stage production.The acting is great, up and down the roster. The child actors range in skill from perfectly functionally fine to heartbreakingly sympathetic. Of course, mention should be made of the A-listers; They took their direction very well and created real pulsing, agonizing, spiritually caught-up life on the screen. And there's nothing I can say about the incomparable, late Mr. Scott that you don't already know.And there are no misses in post-production; it's a superb edit, with tremendous sound work. No technical flaws or mishaps got in the way of the flick's pressing import. In the end, you witnessed a challenge to your belief system. While the political hipsters have upgraded their focus to the economic force of the military-industrial complex, Taps reminds us that there's still something older, primal, and yes sinister that remains afoot. And we need to look at it.Taps shows it to us. Watch it and see.
AaronCapenBanner Harold Becker directed this interesting film that stars George C. Scott as General Harlan Bache, head of the Bunker Hill Military Academy who is proud of its tradition, but is dismayed by the times he lives in, and when the board of trustees votes to shut the Academy down for the redevelopment of Condos, he and the cadets(led by Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise, and Sean Penn) are dismayed. After a civilian is accidentally shot by the General, and he suffers a stroke himself, the cadets decide to seize control of the Academy by force, stopping the bulldozers coming in, but the situation quickly becomes more complicated than they had anticipated... Fine character study with solid direction and performances; well worth a look.
Robert J. Maxwell We are at Bunker Hill Military Academy, a prep school with students ranging in age from, say, high-school seniors to boys so small that they can't possibly have experienced any of the delights of puberty. The cadet corps is run by proud Timothy Hutton. His immediate subordinates include the sensible Sean Penn -- yes, sensible -- and the semi-psychotic Tom Cruise. In overall command is the avuncular General George C. Scott.The problem is that, as Scott announces to the cadets, the school will be closed and sold for its real estate value next Fall. They are going to mow the place down and build condominiums. Scott dies promptly of a heart attack and, led by Cadet Major Hutton, most of the kids confiscate the stores of weapons and lay down a list of demands before they will allow the school to be dissolved. I was all on the side of the cadets. Not that I love military academies but that I hate condominiums. It's rather like why I'm a vegetarian. I hate the taste and texture of vegetables but I love to kill them by eating them raw or boiling them.This film sounds like it has a lot of social relevance -- the military and patriots and men of honor on one side, and the peace-mongering wussies who never had a fist fight on the other. Now we're all going to refight the Vietnam War.But it's not like that at all. Timothy Hutton is a bright kid with leadership qualities only, as it's explained somewhat clumsily, he has reason to hate his father, who is a Sergeant Major, and has found a substitute in General George C. Scott. And therein lies the problem. Hutton has absorbed only part of Scott's message about self discipline, and death before dishonor, and all that elementary stuff. After all, he's only seventeen. It's only with a little seasoning that we can begin to look behind the buzz words.Hutton is ed by Penn because Penn has "never walked out on a friend," and it's Penn who finally talks Hutton into ordering the adoption of another common tactic -- "declare victory and depart the field." But Tom Cruise is the genuine nut job aboard for this adventure into terra incognito. Throughout, he's always been something of a martinet. He is the leader of a group of red berets. I don't know exactly what they're function is but it appears to be something like the Gestapo's. And while the rest of the cadet corps is marching sullenly and weaponless towards the gate where the National Guard is waiting, Cruise cuts loose from an upper window with an M-60 screaming, "It's beautiful! It's BEAUTIFUL!" The performances are all pretty good without any being exceptional. The chief weakness is in the script. It's opened up a whole can of worms and doesn't want to get its fingers dirty by digging into it. The problem with pride, honor, and a feeling of knowing more than others, is that that whole assemblage of attitudes can't exist without an enemy. If you're superior, then you must by definition be superior to someone else. In this case, there are only off-hand references to the pencil-pushers and bean counters. Not that the film presents external forces -- the local cops and the National Guard -- as anything other than reasonable or even perfect. But solidarity is self reinforcing. It feels so good to be part of a group that's even only temporarily powerful that often the original goal is lost sight of. That's what happened during the prison riots at Attica. The governor granted some of the inmates demands and the inmates ripped up the concession to great cheers from the throng. Finally the governor granted ALL their wishes -- and an inmate in the center of the yard ripped them up to great cheers from the throng. The point was no longer to have their wishes granted but to relish the momentary sense of power.And the distinction between civilian power over the military is hardly mentioned. It's one of the lessons that Scott apparently never ed on, but it's a fundamental one. It's why our Commander-in-Chief is called a "president" and not a "generalissimo." Here's something the governor and the National Guard might have tried. They might have simply waited the kids out. What the heck. They couldn't have had that much food. The electricity and water could have been shut down. Enthusiasm for the cause was hardly universal -- about half of them quit. Morale would have crumbled eventually. Fads fade quickly among teens.And Tom Cruise's final insane outburst was completely unjustified by what we'd learned of his character earlier, but then it had to happen or we'd all have been denied the pleasure of the final shoot out. We're built for speed and action, not waiting patiently, not thinking things through logically. In a sense, Tom Cruise stands in for part of all of us. And so do the proud Timothy Hutton and the sensible Sean Penn. I hope when we face our next crisis, whether national or personal, we can find some middle ground.
Neil Doyle Hold the fort seems to be the slogan of these military cadets when they decide to rally behind TIMOTHY HUTTON who wants an armed defense of the school from authorities who want to shut it down after an accidental shooting by the presiding General Bache (GEORGE C. SCOTT). Aiding and abetting are TOM CRUISE and, in his film debut, SEAN PENN.The tale seems highly improbable but is played so earnestly, is scripted so well, and directed so competently that it manages to hold the attention until the more or less predictable outcome.The cadets are all extremely well played, from the very young boys to those who appear to be in their early twenties. When the authorities are unable to take back the school, the parents appeal to the children through loud speakers. "Sometimes being accepted by your friends, isn't worth the price," says one mother.Unfortunately, the stalemate phase of the movie lasts much too long to sustain interest. But it's interesting now to watch the very young Hutton, Penn and Cruise show why they became superstars. I agree with Maltin who says it "plays its cards too soon, leaving a lot of dead weight before the outcome." Summing up: Improbable story, but entertaining in a curious way.Memorable line from Hutton's father resonates today: "They think you're home grown terrorists."
