The General’s Daughter is a stark depiction of ’90s sexual politics, for good and for ill
One interesting aspect about watching “The Generals Daughter” today is that it reflects anxieties about sexuality prevalent in the 1990s. Some of these scenes have aged poorly; Brenner, for example, is sardonic when searching Elisabeths bedroom, remarking that, in the age of AIDS, “You have to boil people before you can sleep with them.”
The film also presents a negative, stigmatized view of BDSM as a form of sexual expression. Though Elisabeths private encounters are consensual, the story implies that they are a response to her previous trauma at West Point. Brenner goes so far as to assume how she died was “linked to how she lived” in a moment of victim-blaming. Despite what “The Generals Daughter” suggests, a 2020 study dispelled the myth that interest in BDSM is connected to past abuse. In any case, the film was made long before a sadomasochistic relationship could spawn a billion-dollar film franchise.
More positively, the film casts a critical eye at “Dont Ask, Dont Tell,” the Clinton-era policy that required LGBTQ service members to keep their sexuality hidden and was in full effect in 1999. After Moores death, Brenner learns that he was secretly gay and in a relationship with his lawyer, meaning he could not have been one of the men on Elisabeths tapes. The unjust policy that kept Moore in the closet left him vulnerable to the killers who shot and framed him — another consequence of the toxic code of silence in the military.
Mainstream studio movies dont get much sleazier than this overcooked military whodunit, in which a gang rape scene is staged on the hallucinatory scale of “Apocalypse Now.”
The title character, Elizabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson) is an Army shrink, the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, Gen. Joe Campbell (James Cromwell). She makes her first appearance helping an Army detective (John Travolta) fix his flat tire while playfully introducing herself as a woman who likes to play with peoples minds. Before long, shes tied to the ground with stakes, raped and strangled.
If so, this ugly story needs more depth to justify its two-hour running time. Its idea of profundity is suggested by a character who wonders “Whats worse than rape?” One of the victims friends (James Woods) responds that “when you find that out, youll know everything.”
As a movie, “The Generals Daughter” could also use more suspense. The general and his protective aide (Clarence Williams III) are introduced as prime candidates for covering up the murder. The script never suggests that they could have any other function. Casting Cromwell in this role, so soon after he played a vicious official in “L.A. Confidential,” is a major miscalculation.
The films glib director, Simon West, gives Stowe some room to explore this character, though its never enough. More often he resorts to trumped-up action scenes involving machine-gun attacks, deadly propeller blades, exploding mine fields and menacing helicopters – none of which have much to do with the story. But with all that Army hardware around, how could he resist?
What are the two worlds of the hero’s journey?
7. The Master of Two Worlds. Having completed the journey out and back in, the hero is now a master of both natural and supernatural world. He can pass over the threshold between the two without further trial.
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