I love this movie so much

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The movie was a box office sensation in 1982 (a domestic grossing around $129 million against its $6 million budget) and catapults Richard Gere and Debra Winger onto leading material phenoms among their peers, and won Louis Gossett Jr. an Oscar for portraying the rigorous drill sergeant Foley.Directed by Taylor Hackford (Mr. Helen Mirren if it rings a bell to those unfamiliar with his works), it is only his second feature film, about a young man Zack (Gere), decides to join the US Navy to fly jets, so he must survive the 13-week training at Aviation Officer Candidate School with his fellow candidates, under the harsh supervision of Foley. Meantime he engages in a romantic relationship with a local girl Paula (Winger) in spite of the warnings that some girls are determined with their own agenda, they will do everything to trick a promising future aviator into marriage, is Paula one of them?Confining the story within these 13 weeks, the film makes sure that we have no chance glimpsing some expensive action set pieces of naval aviation like in Tony Scott's TOP GUN (1986), contentedly, it buoys up the narrative with a feel-good camaraderie bonding during the training program among the cadets, Zack befriends with Sid Worley (Keith), a patriotic young man from a good family, who enrols to assume the lofty vocation of his late brother (a navy officer died in the Vietnam war). To ensure its political correctness, apart from a black trainer, the assembly includes a black family guy Perryman (Sylvester), a homunculus latino Della Serra (Plana), even a female candidate Casey Seeger (Eilbacher), the only missing addition is an Asian.Dazzled by its faithful imitation of the training process, including a novel Dilbert Dunker sequence which disqualifies a very young David Caruso, nevertheless, audience will find out that the centre piece in the school resides within the dynamic relation between a self-assertive Zack and the despotic Foley, Louis Gossett Jr. enforces a bombastic gambit to the utter perfection during his first scenes, and establishes his prestige in spectators both in and off screen. The character Foley precedes a more sadistic variation, R. Lee Ermey's Sgt. Harman in Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET (1987), and Mr. Ermey is in fact the acting coach for Mr. Gossett here; also it is an archetype of the love-and-hate mentor type, which has been portrayed with much more ambiguity and menace in another Oscar-winning performance, J.K. Simmons in Damien Chazelle's WHIPLASH (2014).On the romantic side, there are very erotic sex scenes between Zack and Paula, explicit and intimate, both Gere and Winger are no holds barred in their on screen commitment, especially Winger, "How can you resist? I'm like candy!", gives a sensual, sympathetic and more organic performance in this borderline leading role (which earns her first Oscar nomination). Gere is smoking hot whether he is disrobed or suited with navy uniform, and a brief flashback of the past before the opening credits may suggest Zack's disturbed inner state, but as the story unwinds, he turns out quite well, an Alpha male imparted with street smart, only a bit little withheld, and don't make promises easily.But, tragedy lurks not far away, if Paula bespeaks a good-hearted girl who dares to love somebody unconditionally, the flip side is Sid's squeeze Lynette (Blount), who indirectly triggers a very unsound twist of melodrama only to drive Zack become more cynical and in turn, leave its patronising ending more uplifting when its Oscar-winning theme song UP WHERE WE BELONG swells as if Paula were the damsel in distress whose drab life could only be rescued by a handsome navy officer, that's the biggest mistake of this otherwise agreeable picture, Paula is a wholesome package (although the moment when she reveals the identity of her biological father, it is a rather cunning move to manipulate sense of guilty to advantage), it is Zack who is in the receiving end of a helping hand.

Let me preface this with a statement about myself, for me, it's really difficult to like a romantic movie because I cant enjoy it unless it feels real to me, and making fake love seem real isn't easy. However the reason the love in this movie doesn't feel real to me isn't because the acting is bad or because there's just no chemistry between the two main lovers, Richard Gere and Debra Winger, the issue is that this entire movie is just a gigantic pizza which is 80% cheesiness and 20% movie.The movie only ever manages to have one genuinely good part, the climax, when David Keith offs himself in a motel room with a belt in the shower, something truly sad and something that made me feel a connection to his character and disdain for his ex-lover who had pushed him off the edge. Shortly after however it seems like the movie just forgets this whole entire incident with little collateral damage beyond Gere mouthing off to the gunnery sergeant and having a grudge match that leads to (not even joking) Gere getting kicked in the balls and lying down in the fetal position after him and Gossett exchange a few pseudo karate kicks.Its a shame too, mostly because Gere's character could have been much more interesting, what with his background being raised by his alcoholic father in the Philippines and ports around the world, but the movie seems all to eager to move past that and just get to the part where he's a nice guy and marries the girl. Really he's only ever a jerk in the beginning and his jerkiness is only ever mildly apparent. yet they still try to make him seem like some disturbed rebel when the only edgy stuff he does is karate, riding motorcycles, not talking about feelings, and having a stash of boots and belt buckles he fenced off to his bunk mates, a kind of ridiculous plot point which leads to him and the sergeant having beef, but what was his purpose in doing it anyways? did he need money? did he just want to be edgy? did the screenwriter just want him to be edgy?The worst part is the end, if this were a cheese pizza the last slice would literally just be a melted piece of a cheese wheel, of course he commits to Winger and goes to her upon his graduation and lifts her up in the air joyously in love a mere 20 or so minutes after his closest friends suicide, and the credits roll leaving me, the audience, wondering where the last two hours of my life went with nothing to show for it but the memory of a crappy cheese pizza of a movie without a single pepperoni or topping in sight.smh 4/10

Zack Mayo is the son of a US Navy Petty Officer; a drunk who had abandoned his mother when she became pregnant. When she killed herself Zack followed his father to the Philippines where he got on in life the hard way. Now he is an adult he is determined to make more of himself than his father did… to become a naval aviator… to become an officer and a gentleman. Before he can do that though he must pass the thirteen week course at the Aviation Officer Candidate School where those who don't have what it takes are weeded out. His instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley doesn't think he has what it takes but he will push him and the rest of the class to the limit to find out. Zack befriends fellow student Sid Worley and the two of them start dating Paula and Lynette, a pair of local girls, despite Foley's warning that the local girls are all trying to get married to a pilot by fair means or foul.This film may be well known as a romance, largely due to the famous final scene, but it is far more than just that. In fact the most important relationship in the film is that between Mayo and Foley; Foley may be pushing Mayo to quit but without him he'd never get through the course; what at first appears to be bullying turns out to be the impetus needed to get through the gruelling training programme. Louis Gossett, Jr. certainly earned the Oscar he won for his performance as Foley and Gere is at his best as Mayo whose character develops from a selfish loner to that of somebody willing to help his classmates at his own expense. The rest of the cast are pretty good too; most notably David Keith who plays Sid and Debra Winger who plays Paula. For the most part we can guess how the story will ultimately end but that doesn't make it an entirely feel-good film; there is tragedy too and that comes as quite a shock. Overall an enjoyable film; well worth watching especially if you are a fan of Richard Gere.

Richard Gere plays Zack Mayo, a prospective Navy Officer training cadet who must decide to gain control over his direction-less life, helped by a no-nonsense Gunnery sergeant(superbly played by Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Academy Award) who berates Zack, but all in the effort of making him into a successful Naval officer. Debra Winger plays his girlfriend, who is also struggling with her own life. They both have friends(played by David Keith and Lisa Blount) whose relationship mirrors their own, only with far different results.Entertaining and old-fashioned(in some ways!) film is well acted by its stars, and has stylish direction by Taylor Hackford. Story is surprisingly involving(if a bit predictable) and builds to a satisfying conclusion with the winning song "Up Where We Belong".A big hit that made its leads stars.