Richard Gere Weekend – An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Director: Taylor Hackford

Writer: Douglas Day Stewart (Screenplay)

Starring: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith, Robert Loggia, Lisa Blount, Lisa Eilbacher, Louis Gossett Jr

Plot: A young man must complete his work at a Navy Officer Candidate School to become an aviator, with the help of a tough Gunnery Sergeant and his new girlfriend.

Tagline – It will lift you up where you belong.

Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Love Changes Everyone

Story: An Officer and a Gentleman starts when the rebellious Zack Mayo (Gere) tired of living in his father’s Bryon (Loggia) shadow, enlists in the navy, Zack goes through the strict training regime by Sgt Emil Foley (Gossett Jr), here he shines, finding it almost too easy to get through, he even starts his own business to make sure everyone has extra clean material.

Zack makes friends where he needs them with Sid Worley (Keith) helping him with paperwork side of being in the navy, the job he desires most, in flight. Zack soon finds himself meeting Paula Pokrifki (Winger) who always attend the parties looking for their own soldiers. Zack must learn to balance his training with his new girlfriend, finally learning to grow up in his own life.

Thoughts on An Officer and a Gentleman

Characters – Zack Mayo has grown up under his father that never believed he could achieve anything, he decides to sign up for the navy to follow his dreams of being a pilot, he believes he can just coast through the training alone, only for his way to see him needing to learn to let people in, meet a girl decide whether love is the most important thing in his life or whether he can balance everything together. Paula is a factory worker that goes for parties around the naval candidates, she meets Zack seeing him as different from the rest and gets left constantly wondering if he is willing to change his lone wolf nature. Sid is fellow naval candidate that becomes Zack’s best friend, he pushes him to open up and is the brains that could help Zack through the side that he is struggling through. Sgt Emil Foley is drill sergeant that is training the candidates, he is strict and doesn’t like how Zack thinks he can breeze through the training.

Performances – Richard Gere in this leading role shows us all that he was going on to have a wonderful run as a leading actor, he could play the loveable rogue that wants to find his place in the world. Debra Winger is great here showing how her character is going through a difficult lifetime, where love can make things even more difficult. David Keith brings us a performance which does show us how depression can be hidden from the world. Louis Gossett Jr does bring us one of the best drill sergeants in film here that did get him an Oscar.

Story – The story here follows a rebellious young man that finds his place in the navy, where he learns to work with others and to fall in love, to motivate and find himself a career along the way, he will need to overcome life challenges which will shape his future. We do get to see many different challenges that young people could face when they reach a certain age, this will show us just how difficult people will need to overcome to be the people they were always meant to be. We do get to see the darker side of the services because they will show us just how people can hide the emotional troubles which could bring a life changing moment in their life.

Romance – The love story in this film shows how a rebel meets a girl searching for hope and fall madly in love either though neither of them were really looking for it.

Settings – The film uses a couple of main settings, with the training camp being one of the most iconic for the film, the most iconic comes from warehouse where Paula works, which will be the shot everybody remembers from this film.