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THE
GENERAL’S DAUGHTER NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD
The General’s Daughter, based
on the novel of the same title by Christopher Bertolini which
in turn is constructed from a true story, is a powerful film
about discrimination against women in the military, recalling
the publicity over the Tailhook incident and similar exposés.
Directed by Simon West, the film takes place at a Fort MacCallum,
Virginia, where a woman employed in the psychological warfare
unit is killed. Paul Brenner (played by John Travolta) and
Captain Sarah Sunhill (played by Madeleine Stowe), of the
base’s criminal investigation division, are summoned by General
Campbell (played by James Cromwell) for instructions on how
to investigate the murder. The general’s adjutant, Colonel
Fowler (played by Clarence Williams III), informs them that
in solving the case, "There are three ways of doing things:
The right way, the wrong way, and the Army way," meaning that
a scapegoat should be found quickly so as not to tarnish the
reputation of the general, who is being considered for the
vice presidency. The most exciting element of the film is
the investigation, which goes farther than the "army way."
Brenner first discovers that the victim is Elisabeth Campbell,
the general’s daughter (played by Leslie Stefanson), and tapes
hidden in her home reveal that she is a dominatrix who has
enjoyed mind games with many military personnel whom she has
chained and strapped in her basement. Further investigation
takes Brenner and Sunhill to a psychiatrist at West Point,
and filmviewers are led to believe that the daughter’s sadomasochism
was a psychological adjustment to the post-traumatic stress
resulting from an incident during a military exercise while
a cadet at West Point, where she was held down, spread-eagled,
tied to four stakes in the ground, and gang-raped. She never
got over the fact, when she needed compassionate support,
that her father told her to forget the incident due to the
deleterious impact that a public accusation of gang rape would
have on the armed forces in general and the military’s effort
to recruit women in particular.
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Her
murder in the film occurred when she tried to assume the nude
spread-eagled position on the ground at the Virginia military
base in a vain effort to get her father’s attention, but one
of the original rape attackers saw her on the ground and killed
her. Titles at the end of the film note that 200,000 women
now serve in the U.S. armed forces and predict that soon women
will occupy every position now held by men, but the sidekick
role assigned to Sunhill belies the apparent message. Presumably,
severe criminal penalties and the "right way" of investigating
allegations of rape will deter future male harassment of females
in the don’t-ask-don’t-tell military, or so the film would
have us believe. For the aim of alerting the public to the
seriousness of the problem of sexual harassment in the armed
services, The General’s Daughter is the third
film of 1999 nominated by the Political Film Society for an
award in the category of human rights. MH
POLITICAL
FILM SOCIETY INVITES NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS
Members of the Political Film Society can nominate feature
films released in 1999 for awards in the following categories:
democracy, exposé, human rights, and peace. Nominations close
on December 31 each year, and voting will take place in the
first two months of the year 2000 for the film that best raises
political consciousness in each of four categories.
NOMINEES
FOR 1999
EXPOSÉ:
Bastards, Three
Seasons
HUMAN RIGHTS:
The
General's Daughter, Hard,
Xiu Xiu
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