Featured Audience Ratings

• Anthony L

  
  An Officer and a Gentleman is probably most famous for its ending scene with the song 'Up Where We Belong' playing and Richard Gere in his immaculate white suit. It's probably the best bit. It's somewhere between Full Metal Jacket and Heartbreak Ridge but with a… More
  An Officer and a Gentleman is probably most famous for its ending scene with the song 'Up Where We Belong' playing and Richard Gere in his immaculate white suit. It's probably the best bit. It's somewhere between Full Metal Jacket and Heartbreak Ridge but with a romantic storyline. It's much cheesier than I thought it would be but as long as you ignore David Keith's horrible performance you will enjoy, Louis Gossett Jr's performance should more than make up for it.

• Mike S

  
  Way better than I had imagined and one of the best romantic dramas I've ever had the pleasure to see. It would'nt even have been half as great though, if it wasn't for the stellar performance by Richard Gere (along with the wonderful chemistry he has with Debra Winger).… More
  Way better than I had imagined and one of the best romantic dramas I've ever had the pleasure to see. It would'nt even have been half as great though, if it wasn't for the stellar performance by Richard Gere (along with the wonderful chemistry he has with Debra Winger). Sparks seem to be flying whenever they're together on screen. And although I knew beforehand how things would end, it's still a very interesting journey with some unpredictable sub-plots. A breath of fresh air when compared to modern-day "chick flicks", which too often are riddled with clichés and stereotypes. There are some scenes where it gets a little slow, which made it somewhat hard to rate. But with a third act so powerful and genuinely moving, I do think it's entitled itself to fours stars on the uniform. An uplifting, gripping and beautifully scored motion picture, with an ending so memorable that it'll stay with you forever.

• Alexis N

  
  This guy who came in to my bar said it is his favorite movie and always makes him cry. With honesty like that, how could I not watch this movie?! I thought it was tough and sweet. One of those against-all-odds kind of movies. I enjoyed it, it's a romantic little film.

• AJ V

  
  A beautiful army romance movie, sort of llike From Here to Eternity, but still a good movie that stands on it's own. I really liked it and I highly recommend it.

• Cassie H

  
  Fantastic! Not only is there a good story to it, the message this movie sends sticks with you saying that if someone seems to be trying to teach you a lesson it's only because they care. Great performances by Richard Gere,and Debra Winger. The ending song makes this movie just… More
  Fantastic! Not only is there a good story to it, the message this movie sends sticks with you saying that if someone seems to be trying to teach you a lesson it's only because they care. Great performances by Richard Gere,and Debra Winger. The ending song makes this movie just phenomenal!! Just absoulutly love this movie!!!!!!! Very good movie!!! I can watch this over and over again! :)

• Tim S

  
  One of the greatest chick flicks ever.

• Sarah G

  
  Full Review coming soon... I have to admit that I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. What I love about this film is that despite looking like a chick-flick it's not all about their relationship. Plus, Richard Gere was pretty attractive in his 30's.

• Chris G

  
  OK, I know I tend to be anti-chick flick. Most of them are repetitive pieces of garbage that bank on a hot male star to hold up a pathetic script. For years I've though that An Officer and a Gentleman was the king of chick flicks. All we've seen is that last scene with… More
  OK, I know I tend to be anti-chick flick. Most of them are repetitive pieces of garbage that bank on a hot male star to hold up a pathetic script. For years I've though that An Officer and a Gentleman was the king of chick flicks. All we've seen is that last scene with RichardGere carrying Debra Winger out of her factory job in his military dress. It feels like pure chick flick. But it turns out to be much more than that. The film follows Zack Mayo (Richard Gere), a recent college grad who shocks his boozing and whoring father by declaring that he had joined the Navy to learn to fly jets. Mayo ends up being under the thumb of Gunnery Sergeant Foley (LouisGossett, Jr.) while entering into a romance with local factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger). The film folows the ups and downs of this group of officer wannabes. You see their pain. Gere's character may seem confident, but he realizes he's landed in his last chance. You see the hell and the happiness when he's with Paula. It's sort of aying yang portrayal between the cold as ice trainee and the lover. Gere pulls it off, as does Winger. Winger's character is almost like a lost soul who knows that the operating procedure in her town is to trap and officer and see the world, yet she knows that she actually wants to love whoever her mate is supposed to be. The key performance is Louis Gossett, Jr. His portrayal of Sgt. Foley is a masterpiece and sets the standard for all other Sergeants (sans real drill instructor R. LeeErmey ) that followed him. He's a prick, but there are a few cracks in that armor. Just a few and they don't show very often as they're almost felt like a ghostly presence. A great performance that deserved the Oscar he won. After seeing An Officer and a Gentleman I almost have to call it Full Metal Jacket Light. Instead of being a romance, which seems to be a secondary plot point, it's more of an examination of the human spirit beingtwisted and distorted by forces all around the characters. Like I said it may be a chick flick, but it's a good chick flick.

• Red L

  
  This is a decent movie. Combining the self-centred tough guy Zack (R. Gere), the Sargent (Gossett, Jr.) who sees something in Zack and Paule, the love interest (Debra Winger). Can Zack be a team player? Can he admit he might love Paula? Gossett Jr. won an Academy Award, and… More
  This is a decent movie. Combining the self-centred tough guy Zack (R. Gere), the Sargent (Gossett, Jr.) who sees something in Zack and Paule, the love interest (Debra Winger). Can Zack be a team player? Can he admit he might love Paula? Gossett Jr. won an Academy Award, and perhaps Debra Winger should have as well.

• Lady D

  
  A film I have watched over and over since I was a kid and annoyingly know pretty much every word to. I am a self-confessed, non-girly girl and a flixster friend thought they'd made a breakthrough when they heard I liked this film, sorry to disappoint but it was the assort… More
  A film I have watched over and over since I was a kid and annoyingly know pretty much every word to. I am a self-confessed, non-girly girl and a flixster friend thought they'd made a breakthrough when they heard I liked this film, sorry to disappoint but it was the assort course, the relationship between Zac and Sid and the relationship between Zac and Serjeant Foley that I loved so much. VERDICT: A film that everyone should watch at some point

• Dean !

  
  A very good film as an officer is put through a tough regime to become an officer while falling for a local girl.

• xGary X

  
  Managing to include all the cliches of both bootcamp movies and romance, this sappy chick flick is saved from being completely hateful because of able support from David Keith and Lou Gossett Jr.

• Lanning :

  
  This is Lou Gossett Jr's finest hour (and 22 minutes). An amazingly intense performance. He really was cursed after winning the Oscar. His career should have taken off, but sadly did not. This is the movie <i>Top Gun</i> wished it was. A must see for Gossett… More
  This is Lou Gossett Jr's finest hour (and 22 minutes). An amazingly intense performance. He really was cursed after winning the Oscar. His career should have taken off, but sadly did not. This is the movie <i>Top Gun</i> wished it was. A must see for Gossett fans, for Gere fans, and for Winger fans. David Keith gives his finest performance as well. <p> <b> 02/17/07 update:</b> This one just gets better and better with age. Up a half star.

• danny d

  
  overrated and boring

• Dean M

  
  The best drama tale of army I ever watch.

• Leigh R

  
  Fantastic movie, get the tissues...

• Cameron J

  
  "Love lift us up where we belong, where the eagles cry, on the mountain high!" So yeah, this film's theme song's lyrics aren't exactly written by Billy Joel, and yet, it's still one of your better '80s movie theme songs, so it would appear as though… More
  "Love lift us up where we belong, where the eagles cry, on the mountain high!" So yeah, this film's theme song's lyrics aren't exactly written by Billy Joel, and yet, it's still one of your better '80s movie theme songs, so it would appear as though Joe Cocker didn't rather gratuitously growl his throat into dust... again, in vain, or at least not to everyone other than Don Simpson, who was so uncrazy about the super-hit song, which he didn't even expect to be a hit, that he tried to get the thing cut from this film to which he wasn't even attached. Ouch, that's pretty harsh, but hey, who would take Don Simpson's word when it comes to successful original music for a drama about Naval aviation? Granted, four years after this film came out, Simpson produced "Top Gun", whose soundtrack featured, like, 32 original songs and has a 9x Platinum certificate, but other than that, what does he know? Yeah, now that I think about it, if it wasn't for Simpson's not even attached to this film, the success of the "Top Gun" soundtrack's not coming until after this film and Taylor Hackford's having a history of both knowing quite a bit about music and being evidently extremely convincing (He got a 52-year-old Helen Mirren, who swore to never marry, to marry him; now that's impressive), Simpson might have stood a chance of getting this film's theme song cut, so we got pretty lucky, not necessarily because I'm all that crazy about "Up Where We Belong", but because I don't think something "Danger Zone" would fit all that much in this film, which definately isn't as action-packed as "Top Gun". Yeah, there's not a whole lot going on with this Naval aviation film, but hey, I reckon I'm not gonna complain too much, as this film remains a good one. Still, with that said, regardless of what Don Simpson might have you believe (if he wasn't dead), this film's song is the least of its worries. The film isn't necessarily dull, or even really all that generally terribly bland in its slowness, yet there is indeed slowness, which will lapse quite often, yet not often enough, being prevalent enough for the film to go generally paceless and quite often blanded up, occasionally something fierce, thus resulting in atmospheric pacing problems that don't simply prove detrimental by their own right, but call more to attention story structure pacing problems. Douglas Day Stewart's screenplay has plenty of high points, but also has plenty of fat around the edges, not simply turning in too much material, but too much familiar material that sends the film in circles rather aimlessly, resulting in repetition of excess filler that slows down what momentum there is in the film and helps in granting the final product the over two-hour runtime that its story doesn't really warrant. Certainly, enough bite can be found within the story concept and directorial touches for the final product to come out as rewarding, but really, there just isn't a whole lot going on, with the more prominent military angle being compelling yet almost blandly minimalist, and the romance angle all but bringing things to a whiplash halt. At its absolute worst, the film is quite decent, yet about the only reason why the romantic attributes don't leave the film to collapse as underwhelming is because they're a touch underused, and even then, the relatively limited usage of the romance angle proves problematic by doing not too much more than create a sense of thematic unevenness upon the incorporation of the romance attribues that both throws you off quite a bit and further emphasizes just how lesser - nay - borderline expendable the romance angle is in comparison with the military angle. Again, the film is decent at worst, so I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy any of the romantic subplots, yet the romantic angles are just so hardly compelling and necessary, with limited originality, hardly any sense of actual conflict and not really too much impact on the final product. Still, it's not like the story is, when at it's best, stellar or anything like that, for although the story's concept and execution is generally fairly sharp, there's not quite too much sting to any part of this tale, and with the slow aimlessness and excessive repetition bringing this more to light, the final product should, for all extents and purposes, underwhelm, which of course makes this film's success at true goodness all the more impressive. Don't get me wrong, the film escapes underwhelmingness by not much than a hair, yet the fact of the matter is that it makes its break into rewarding sharpness that stands prevalent enough to both leave you to walk away satisfied and recognize what value there is within the substance. I wish I could say that the film's subject matters runs a deep as it should, yet many of the film's most potent story attributes have only so much weight to them, with certain other attributes, including a whole romantic theme angle, standing as borderline expendable filler, though no piece of this tale is less than enjoyable, and when the subject matter really picks up, while it doesn't quite lift up to where the eagles fly and Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes sing and, in the case of Cocker, growl, it all but takes off conceptually, alone. As for the execution of the worthy concepts, expect flaws, yet mostly for there to be quite a bit of inspiration, even in the writing department, for although Douglas Day Stewart's story structuring gets to be a bit bloated and even a tad uneven in its thematic shifts on occasions, Stewart's characterization and exposition layout is colorful and immensely charming, sparking much life into the character aspects that drive this film, while Taylor Hackford takes good care of the more atmospheric aspects, or at least when he needs to most. Hackford's atmosphere dries up all too often, thus creating the slowness that blands things up a bit, yet there is always enough juice in the air to keep charm alive and consistently engaging, and when Hackford really needs to deliver, well, he delivers, drawing intrigue and depth from the particularly dramatic moments, not to where a degree of predictability dissipates, yet certainly to where resonance accels and really brings the value of the subject matter to life. The final act kicks off with a tragedy that I bet you'll recognize behind an especially dramatic note that really does pierce with sharp emotional punctuation to the film's depth, which goes truly defined by particularly resonant moments such as those, yet isn't so lacking that the rest of the film finds itself unable to be kept alive as rewarding by other high points in writing and direction, as well as by high points in acting that never finds itself paralleled by low points. Certainly, due to the film's dramatic limitations, there are material limitations for our hefty cast of talents, yet each performer boasts piercing charisma that defines his or her character as distinctive and engagingly colorful, with Louis Gossett, Jr. particularly stealing the show whenever he hits the scene as the absurdly charming, dirtbaggishly take-no-bull drill instructor who we all love to hate and, at least in this film's case, walk away really remembering. Still, as charming as everyone is, there is indeed dramatic material that hits many people at one point or another, but perhaps hits leading man Richard Gere the hardest, and when that time comes, Gere delivers with emotional range that dances from grippingly broad to movingly subtle and goes into fleshing out the Zack Mayo character as more than just a colorful piece in the character department: a worthy lead. The film hardly soars, and never could, due to natural shortcomings, yet there is a fair deal of value to the subject matter that, when brought to life by the inspiration that powers the writing, direction and acting, makes all the difference and goes into making this film well worth watching. When it's all said and done, slowness and repetition, as well as the uneven incorporation of the almost rather expendable and hardly compelling romantic attributes, emphasize the limitations within the bite of the subject matter and nearly brings this film to a state of underwhelmingness, yet ultimately finds its threats of undercutting the film's value fended off, as the film finds itself "lifted up to where it belongs" on the wings of quite a few high spots in the subject matter, fleshed out by the color within Douglas Day Stewart's charming writing and Taylor Hackford's sometimes resonant direction, and complimented by an abundance of distinctive charisma within the cast, from which Richard Gere stands out as a compelling lead and one of the reasons why "An Officer and a Gentleman" manages to cut through its shortcomings and ultaimtely stand as a rewarding watch. 3/5 - Good

• Anthony L

  
  One of the greatest romances an one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. Richard Gere gives an outstanding performance alongside other great performances from Debra Winger and Louis Gossett JR.

• Danny R

  
  An 80s classic that is a well-crafted and truly uplifting film that is superbly directed byTaylor Hackford, it was a surprise box-office smash hit at the time of its release, it also established Richard Gere as a major motion picture star due to his sensational breakout performance… More
  An 80s classic that is a well-crafted and truly uplifting film that is superbly directed byTaylor Hackford, it was a surprise box-office smash hit at the time of its release, it also established Richard Gere as a major motion picture star due to his sensational breakout performance as Zack Mayo, a selfish, hardened, rebellious loner who enters the Officers Candidate School to become a Naval Aviator, but first he most undergo thirteen torturous weeks of training at the hands of the imperious, unrelenting, tough-as-nails but sympathetic drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, played by Louis Gossett Jr. in a phenomenal muti-layered Oscar winning performance, it will be Foley who will be pivotal in the personal growth of Mayo, he will teach him that no man is an island and can make it alone, Mayo will learn the importance of discipline, friendship and teamwork he befriends another candidate named Sid Worley who will becomes his best friend, he is wonderfully played by David Keith. Foley warns all of his young candidates about the local girls who will do anything to catch themselves a husband who is a Naval Aviator, which is the answer to their dreams of escaping their life of drudgery at the paper mill, Mayo and Sid begin dating two of the town girls Paula and Lynette, played by Debra Winger in a luminous Oscar nominated performance and Lisa Blount who delivers a solid turn. Mayo who has had great hardship in his life as a youth with the suicide of his mother and having to be raised in the Philippines by his estranged amoral womanizing alcoholic father, played excellently by Robert Loggia is now beginning to slowly fall in love for the first in his life with Paula, while his best friend Sid struggles with a very different fate. Richard Gere and Debra Winger have a real chemistry that is electric, their scenes together are tender and genuinely moving and their steamy sex scenes are realistic and beautifully photographed. Excellent musical score by Jack Nitzsche with a knockout Oscar winning song "Up Where We Belong," sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warren. This film has it all romance, anguish, humor and a potent heartfelt ending that packs a real emotional wallop. Highly Recommended.

• Alec B

  
  Its a lot better than you'd expect a popular 80s romance film to be. While it does get a little cheesy, and Richard Gere barely manages a passable performance its still a very entertaining. The supporting performances of Debra Winger, David Keith, and Louis Gosset Jr. are really… More
  Its a lot better than you'd expect a popular 80s romance film to be. While it does get a little cheesy, and Richard Gere barely manages a passable performance its still a very entertaining. The supporting performances of Debra Winger, David Keith, and Louis Gosset Jr. are really terrific and they more than make up for Gere.

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