Loved this movie.

I was nine years old when I first saw the film in theaters, and it made me a fan of Timothy Hutton for life. He is one of my favorite actors, right alongside Harrison Ford, Terence Stamp, and Roy Scheider. It was a very powerful film.

I also liked Ronny Cox's character in the picture, too. He was great as the sympathetic Colonel who really did not want to take down the cadets at the Academy. Even though I don't like Sean Penn that much, he really convinced me as the level headed friend of Hutton's character. Tom Cruise was very convincing as the "SPOILER ALERT" ill-fated David Shawn. I honestly did not care much for his character or anything about him.

It's funny, that twelve years later, the themes of this film would be repeated at Waco, Texas, despite the different circumstances. Talk about life imitating art.


Overall, this movie was great.