Don't believe the naysayers, this is a true uplifter. Zack Mayo, after years of being shunted around with his woman chasing, alcoholic naval father, decides to up sticks and join the navy himself. He plans to fly jets and enrols at a tough Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School. Very much a loner and used to doing things his own way, Zack must tow the line if he is to succeed. Forming friendships and taking on a romance with a local girl, he may just make the grade. But he has to convince not only his tough no nonsense drill instructor, but also himself. An Officer And A Gentleman has been bogged down over the years by being labelled as a chick flick, a film they say, that is for the soggy handkerchief brigade. Not so say I. Yes love is a critical strand here, not only finding it after years of being closed off from it, but also to keep it after seizing the day. But it's as much a film about determination as it is about conquering love, in finding strengths from within to achieve ones goals against seemingly badly stacked odds. It really is a film that essays that triumph of the will spirit so lacking in many similar pictures that followed this 1982 piece. There are some incredibly great sequences here, chiefly during the training programme, from Mayo's continuing conflict with Sgt Foley, to a devastating turn of events with a friendship. This film royally packs an emotiona…

This is really a film about a power duet - and we don't get that until the end. The rest of this is a rather mediocre outing for all concerned. Richard Gere - an actor whose stardom still, even now, perplexes me - is "Zack", brought up by his dad "Byron" (Robert Loggia) after his mother died. Now an adult, he must learn to stand on his own two feet. Determined to prove himself and follow his father into the military, he enrols in the Naval Officer School where he encounters the no-nonsense drill instructor "Sgt. Foley" (Louis Gossett Jr) whilst befriending "Sid" (David Keith) and "Paula" (Debra Winger). Now "Zack" is quite a shrewd fella, and is soon running a range of scams around the base that eventually runs him foul of his equally savvy instructor - and the two are soon at loggerhead: a relationship that tests "Zack" to breaking point. Off the base, he and his pal are dating "Paula" and her pal "Lynette" (Lisa Blount) and he must now juggle his sex life with his determination not to get drummed out of the regiment at the hands of his nemesis. There is, sadly, something really predictable about just about all of this. You just know what the plot is going to deliver, and though Gossett Jr. is quite effective as the bad-ass sergeant, the rest of the characterisations are about as shallow as an Ethiopian river in July. Like so many films on this topic, those portrayed in the fo…

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