"There are three ways of doing things, Mr. Brenner: the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way..."      

THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER (R)

Reviewed June 19, 1999 - Check out The General's Daughter Website.

Based on the novel by Nelson DeMille, The General's Daughter is one of those military-detective-cop thrillers that can either keep someone on the edge of their seat, or leave them snoozing through the whole show.  Set in a military base in Georgia, the story introduces us to Paul Brenner (John Travolta), an investigator for the Army's Criminal Investigation Divison.  Brash, strong-willed, and with a healthy disdain for authority, Brenner is on assignment on an illegal weapons deal when he is called to investigate a murder on the base.  The victim is Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), an attractive young woman who worked for the Army's Psychological Operations unit, and a young woman who was also (as you probably guessed) the daughter of soon-to-be retired General Joe Campbell (James Cromwell). 

The murder is a particularly brutal one, with Elisabeth Campbell found naked and tied to stakes on the ground, apparently the victim of rape and strangulation.  However, General Campbell (a man with political aspirations) asks Brenner to complete his investigation within a short 36 hours, hoping to prevent it from leaking to the media.  Working with rape investigator Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), Brenner then gets to work on finding the perpetrator(s) of this murder, a search which quickly begins to expose a number of dark secrets from everyone involved.

So yes, it's a murder mystery with a dash of sex-crime and a whole lot of military in it.  With very effective pacing and some surprisingly snappy bits of dialog, The General's Daughter is a film that certainly manages to entertain.  John Travolta is particularly engaging here, as is James Woods, who plays Captain Campbell's mentor and Brenner's prime murder suspect, Colonel Moore.  If you're up for a murder/mystery type of film, then this might just be your ticket.  Still, The General's Daughter doesn't escape without some criticism.  Among them are the film's slightly too graphic and lingering depiction of murder scenes, rapes and corpses (which tends to blunt their effectiveness after a while), as well as a number of untied loose ends (e.g., who stole the sex tapes?).  These are quibbles of course, but notable ones nevertheless.  The General's Daughter is a good (but not great) film, one that offers its share of suspense (and a few surprise laughs), and one that certainly can provide a fair two-hours worth of entertainment.

Responses from cyberspace--thanks for writing!

Klobb gives this movie  stars: "The General's daugher is (no joke) a whore!" The book was a lot better" (6/24/99)