| Heartbreak Ridge | | Cast : | Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason | | Director : | Clint Eastwood | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | December 05, 1986 | | DVD Released Date : | September 14, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 12, 2005 | | Summary | Not realistic, but so what? | Content
 | OK, anybody who has spent 10 minutes in the Marines (or even the Army) will realize that this movie is laughably unrealistic. So what? It's a great story. Sure, the scenario of the tough sergeant and the young soldiers been told a hundred times before, but it's a classic theme that Clint Eastwood does a great job with. It's full of great lines. I still use Eastwood's maxim, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome" with my kids. Mario Van Peebles is excellent as the reluctant Marine, rock singer wannabe, who provides a terrific comedic foil for Eastwood. Pretty corny throughout, but still fun to watch. Not for kids, though. The intense profanity is the one thing in this film that's realistic. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 17, 2005 | | Summary | "You shouldn't litter, Fagetti; it's ecologically unsound." | Content
| When this film came out, aeons ago, a sneering newspaper reviewer called it an the utltimate "OC" movie, "OC" meaning "of course." He was referring to the fact that there isn't a single character or situation in "Heartbreak Ridge" that could be called remotely original -- it's basically a 1980s version of every 1940s, '50s, & '60s war movie you ever saw. His evidence:
1 - crusty yet somehow loveable sergeant
2 - crusty yet somehow loveable sidekick
3 - pencil-pushing jerk senior officer
4 - green platoon leader
5 - woman from past
6 - bumbling soldier who needs to grow up
7 - assorted Cental Casting platoon members
8 - generic training sequences
9 - generic trial by fire
10 - predictable ending
All this is completely true. I just don't care. The stupid reviewer was too busy being smug to understand that the reason this story has been told so many times is because it is a classic, and classics are timeless. Especially under the tender care of Clint "Shoot First, Ask Questions Never" Eastwood.
"Ridge" is the story of Tom Highway (as in "My Way Or The..."), a bullet-scarred, gravelly-voiced Marine sergeant who has fought in three wars, won a bucketfull of medals, and is now facing mandatory retirement. Ol' Gunny Highway ain't takin' it too well, either -- he drinks, fights with the cops, and gets yelled at by his superiors. Banished to a supply billet, all he yearns for is one last chance to lead combat troops, and before you can say "of course," he's packed off to his old unit -- you know, the same one he was kicked out of years before, for insubordination and conduct unbecoming (you know, the usual Eastwood Offences).
Of course, his old unit is run by an unblooded, chin-thrusting martinet named Powers, who is described at one point in the film as being the sort who consults the manual before he mounts his old lady. Powers hates Highway and wants to run him out of the Corps, so he saddles him with a platoon of losers and ungovernable misfits run by a nerdy and clueless lieutenant. Chief among these dolts is the slick-talking Corporal Stitch Jones, played with glib hustla's charm by Mario Van Peebles.
Of course, Highway's embittered yet sexy ex-wife is still in town, and of course, Highway is still in love with her, in his foul-mouthed way. When he's not getting shot down by his ex, Highway guzzles beer and reminisces with his old war buddy, Sgt Major Choozoo, who's even more foul-mouthed than Highway. There's even a foul-mouthed female bartender who sits around pouring beers and dispensing crusty Corps wisdom. Honestly, this movie has the best cursing I've ever heard.
Of course, Highway's tough love approach is a hard swallow for everybody. Powers is after his stripes, his ex-wife's boyfriend (the guy who played Buford Pusser in the latter two entires in the "Walking Tall" movie series) wants to clean his clock, and his Marines wish he would just seize up and die like an old lawnmower. Little do they know that his brutal regimen will one day save their lives! For unbeknownst to all, the villainous Fidel Castro has ordered his military to seize power on the tiny Caribe resort island of Grenada, which houses lots of drunken American medical students. President Reagan ain't takin' this too well, so before you can say "Semper Fi" Highway and company are choppering off to put theory into practice and kick communist butt.
Do Highway's boys perform up to spec? Will Powers get his commupance? Will the sexy ex-wife be waiting when and if Highway returns? Of course, of course, and of course. But who cares? This movie is hilarious and hugely entertaining. Eastwood's over-the-top alpha-male performance is about as subtle as a bullet to the solar plexus, but it's great fun. So is the glaring villainy of Powers, the charming nerdiness of Ring, the slick charm of Jones, and the crusty bulldog loyalty of Choozoo. These cliched characters are like old friends.
"Ridge" has some funny trivia attached to it. Originally, it was written for an army character, but it seems the army wanted to make the movie a commercial for all its latest weaponry, so Eastwood tapped the Corps instead. When the Marine brass saw it, however, they were so appalled by the language they withdrew their endorsement. And these are Marines we're talking about, the guys who may have actually invented 6 of the 7 words you can't say on TV. It just goes to show you that four or five years in the Pentagon can ruin anybody.
More interestingly, the movie's title, "Heartbreak Ridge" is a glaring anachronism -- Heartbreak Ridge was taken by the Army's 4th Infantry Division, not the Marines. Clint was too in love with the title to change it, so he threw in a line about how Highway fought in Korea with the army but "joined the Corps later." Clint never let logic get in the way of his storytelling, and the audience shouldn't either.
Now come on, you devil dogs, let's take this blankety-blank hill! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 15, 2005 | | Summary | Be advised: I'm mean, nasty and tired . . . | Content
| Is this the greatest Clint Eastwood movie of all time? No. Is is classic? Yes. The hard-nosed Eastwood plays Gunny Sgt. Thomas Highway who has reached the end of his blood-and-guts career as a Marine and is looking around for a place to lie down and die when he's transfered to run a recon unit inhabited by a bunch of misfits and renegades and complete dipsh*ts. There are more classic Eastwood monologues than you can shake a copy of Dirty Harry at here. The invasion of Grenada plays into the movie around the end and Gunny Highway take his group of Lifetakers and Heartbreakers on the ride of their young lives. Into battle. Overall, there are some glitches here, but the movie flows and Eastwood is at the top of his form. Enjoyable and slightly sad. Definitely a movie you have to have for your DVD collection. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 23, 2005 | | Summary | Pretty good for Hollywood war movie | Content
| Clint Eastwood as the aging chew-'em-up Marine sergeant who no longer fits in today's (1986, remember) "prissy" corps. Using the old ways, he whips a young batallion into shape, just in time to take them to Granada for some real fighting. There, of course, their hard-training pays off. At the same time, Eastwood is trying to reconcile with his ex-wife (Marsha Mason), who left him because he thought more of the military than her. There is more depth here than in most Hollywood war movies, but it still doesn't quite make it. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 15, 2004 | | Summary | Sure | Content
| Sure, this movie has some pretty hackneyed dialogue and plot devices; and sure, there are some inaccuracies and inconsistencies, but come on! This movie is one of the most fun to watch military movies I've ever seen. And some of the lines, I've had occasion to use during my military career. (Clint's succinct report to the regimental commander during the alert in particular.)
It is interesting to note, also, that the commandeering of the bulldozer actually did occur during Operation Urgent Fury, but the person responsible was actually Ranger Captain John Abizaid, now a 4-star general and the commander of USCENTCOM. |
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