*** out of 5
The General's Daughter is a movie which is, to say the least, disturbing. It was
I say more importantly because the why of the matter becomes more important than
Let's begin by examining the disturbing nature. There is a rape scene in this movie,
There's more, though. While the rape scene is disturbing, it was necessary. Now, a
That's not to say that it's a bad movie, though. The movie should have gotten four stars
Video Re-review
Works just as well on the small screen as it did on the big screen. But, you'll note that
(extra thought on the extra half-star: maybe because I knew what kind of movie I was watching,
also quite good. It was not, however, outstanding. The movie is a murder mystery
about who killed the daughter of an army general and, more importantly, why.
the who. And even the who is a multi-layered answer. I won't jabber on and on
about that, though, for the main reason that if anyone out there decides to see
this movie, I'd rather not give anything away. The movie is good for a mystery
and John Travolta delivers his usual outstanding performance (though I must admit
to having a wee prejudice; I haven't not liked this actor since his comeback in the
Tarantino so-called masterpiece Pulp Fiction, and I still say that Reservoir Dogs was
superior, but that's another review). There are, however, a few places where this
motion picture falters.
and it's certainly not the nicest thing to watch. Actually, it's quite disturbing to
watch, seeing as you see the men mount the woman and rape her. It's a very graphic
scene, a bit too graphic to my liking. However, just as the violence is a disturbing
but necessary part of Summer of Sam, so is the rape scene the viewer bares witness to
in this movie. It's an integral part of the story which helps make a few other points
of the movie (which I will not reveal) make sense... and seem so much more outrageous.
good mystery movie needs clues which point the viewer to a number of suspects where they
are invited to solve the mystery along with the protagonist. There are a number of
suspects in this movie, but there just aren't enough clues. It's a lot like a mystery
that we're simply supposed to watch and enjoy instead of take part in. This movie would
have been much better had the mystery been more mysterious.
instead of just three, but the fact remains that the acting and the story just couldn't make
up for the fact that there wasn't enough clues to point this movie in the direction that
the story takes it... which is somewhere quite rare and shocking indeed. I won't say anything,
but it's quite disgusting to me what we find out... disgusting in a moral sense, not in a
physical sense. The rape scene was enough for that.
***1/2 out of 5
I gave it an extra half-star. The reason is that I actually found it more compelling this
time around. Maybe it's one of those movies that works better on the small screen but would
never work as a TV-movie. There's just something about it that would demean it if it had been
originally made as a TV-movie. But, as I say, there's no real difference between seeing this movie
on the small-screen than the big-screen.
I was able to enjoy it more? I think so)