Heartbreak Ridge

1986's HEARTBREAK RIDGE is a perfect vehicle for producer/director/star Clint Eastwood.  Not a perfect movie, mind you, but the equivalent of comfort food for those who (at least occasionally) enjoy a good old fashioned military drama complete with bumbling privates, clashing officers, and barely coherent obscenities.  The invasion of Grenada in the early '80s is the film's backdrop once the Marines complete their bumpy training, and of course is no laughing matter.  But Eastwood's movie remains fairly lighthearted even in battle scenes, leading to the expected heroes' welcome back in the U.S. A.  The finale also involves the thwarting of a hissable Major (Everett McGill) who's spent the entire movie telling Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway that he's outdated and unfit to lead a platoon.

You might cry "Spoiler!" with some of that last paragraph, but honestly, did you expect Eastwood to mount anything but a crowd pleasing God and Country non-think entertainment?  This ain't no anti-war polemic.  It's a flag waving celebration of old school machismo and rugged individualism (as a vehicle to rally the grunts to work as a unit, natch).   Interestingly,  the real life Marine Corp. wasn't too pleased with HEARTBREAK RIDGE, pulling the movie's tie-in with their annual "Toys For Tots" Christmas drive due to the amount of profanity and bad behavior.  As one critic pointed out, these filmic Marines act too much like real Marines.

"Gunny" is about to retire but manages to return to the Second Marine Division, where he once served.  The current Reconnaissance Platoon is made up of a group of lazy, mouthy punks who've been allowed to slack off. Gunny ain't having it, and immediately submits the Marines to grueling (and hazardous) training.  Major Powers balks at Gunny's old school methods and attitude (which includes a few uses of the word "clusterfuck") and lectures about the "new" Marine Corp.  In many ways, Sgt. Highway is Dirty Harry in fatigues.

HEARTBREAK RIDGE trots out every imaginable cliche for such a story.  The grunts will rebel but then respect the gravelly voiced old cuss as they are whipped into shape. The Sarge has an ex-wife he is trying to win back, even if he has to study women's magazines to that end.  In a comfort movie like this, fans won't mind.  I sure didn't, as Eastwood is so entertaining in this picture that you hang on his every husky utterance, which includes plenty of macho witticisms like "If you tap it more than three times, it constitutes pleasure!"

The director does allow the film to get a bit too cute and goofy at times, but in the end, maybe even the most left of center viewers will secretly hope they have a guy like Highway around if the shit ever came down.