Taps1981

When I started watching this movie, I expected a holdovers-esque school story. What I got instead was one of the greatest war movies ever made.  There is a scene early in the film where the students at the Bunker Hill Military School march on parade in full dress. It is a scene that, on first viewing, has little importance other than to inform the audience and the students that the school will be closing next year.  It is only at the end of the film, after the smoke has cleared and the scene plays again, that the weight is laid upon you, the viewer, and the full message is understood.  “Honor doesn't count for shit when you're looking at a dead little boy.” Why do we glorify the military? Why do we train children to give “the last full measure of devotion?” The message in this movie is needed more now in a post-9/11, post-Trump world than it was needed then. But maybe if people had heard the message then, we wouldn’t need it now.  I was completely moved by this film and brought to tears. If the best war movies are anti-war, then this film should be at the top of the list.  WATCH THIS MOVIE — P.s. it is insane to me that in only Tom cruises second movie he would play such a huge and pivotal role and then would follow it up with the absolutely neutered performance he gives in losin’ it. Luckily losin’ it can be waved away as a minor speed bump in what is other wise an incredible catalogue of films.