General’s Daughter, The

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This is a compelling suspense / drama that would be a lot easier to stomach if it didn’t have as its subject matter the brutality of gang rape against a woman officer and her subsequent meaningless death. My advice to women in the military – don’t go there.

Set on an army base in Georgia, John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe play officers for the army’s internal affairs division investigating the murder of General Joseph Campbell’s (James Cromwell) daughter, who worked for the military’s psyops (psychological warfare) department.

I feel sorry for the poor actress who was convinced to play the rape scene and the scene as she’s being strangled to death. I know work in Hollywood is hard to come by but I think if every actress said no to nudity and violence on top of nudity, we’d have some happier pictures being made.

In any case, I was impressed with the acting. Travolta was robust as an irreverent investigator and Stowe always does nice work. Exceptional, however, was James Woods as top suspect, Colonel Moore who was the dead girl’s commanding officer.

The story line twists remarkably at the end. The only problem is that they seemed to pull the real killer right out of a hat, since absolutely no clues were given to make you even consider him. But that’s how it goes.

Lotta says I did like the drama just not the particulars surrounding the girl’s death. Those scenes seemed largely exploitative and I’m really getting tired of having to view them.

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