"An Officer and a Gentleman" 1982

“An Officer and a Gentleman”

Foley: In every class, there's always one joker who thinks that he's smarter than me. In this class, that happens to be you. Isn't it, Mayonnaise?

It is Richard Gere’s birthday today and when I think of him two movies come to mind immediately. “Pretty Woman” and “An Officer and a Gentleman”. They are very different movies. I like both of them.

Zack Mayo wants to fly jets. So he gets into officer training and tries. He’s had a life of no one believing in him. His mother died when he was young and his father is terrible. He dreams of making a change and getting a better life. But he’s a bit of a jerk.

That’s right, another misunderstood bad boy. This one doesn’t dance but it is still worth it for the ending.

He romances Debra Winger’s Paula. She is a town girl who is afraid to dream. She is the product of an ill fated romance her mother had with her own officer candidate. Now she watches her mother who is married to Mr. Edwards from “Little House on the Prairie” and working in a paper factory and she is desperate for a different life.

Her best friend Lynette is more determined. She wants to marry a pilot and will do whatever it takes to get there. She spots Sid, played earnestly by David Keith, and sees her ticket out her crappy life. Sid’s brother died in Vietnam and he is going through the motions, living the life his brother left behind.

But the romance is only half the movie.

Louis Gossett Jr. won an Oscar for his portrayal of Foley, a hard case drill instructor. His job is to push each of the candidates to the breaking point. The classic scene is where Mayo is being punished. Foley is determined to break him down and make him DOR, Dropped on Request. After hours of relentless punishment, Foley is screaming at Mayo to quit.

Mayo then launches into what my husband refers to as his “Oscar Clip”. He is fighting tears, drenched in sweat and in a voice husky with emotion he screams back at Foley.

Mayo: I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!!

I think it is required that in order for a man to really grow in one of these movies, his best friend has to die tragically. Look at “Top Gun”. It is practically a remake. Sid makes the decision to stop being his brother and live his own life. He drops out of the military and proposes to Lynette, believing she is carrying his baby. She dreams of exotic bases around the world and rejects him as soon as he reveals that their destination is Oklahoma. Devastated he commits suicide.

This cracks Mayo. He confronts Foley and rejects Paula.

But in the end he sees that he is a better man with Paula. Wearing his dress whites fresh from graduation he walks into the factory and literally sweeps her off her feet. Her mother watches as her daughter gets the happy ending she didn’t have. Lynette watches with jealous eyes. We hate her anyway, so that is good.

Lynette: Way to go Paula! Way to go!

The music swells and they walk into the sunset together as Paula puts Zack’s hat on her own head. And I cry every time.