The movie opens on a young man, Zach Mayo, trying to wake up an old man and a prostitute in a closed-in apartment in Seattle. A US Navy Chief’s uniform is draped across a nearby chair. Zach relives memories of his life with his father, which began in the Philippines and likely played out in ports throughout the Orient. This kid did not grow up in a loving, supporting home. His father was more concerned with living the life of a porn star and ensuring his son was part of it. Zach announces to his father (the naked Navy Chief) that he is going to become an aviator. His dad warns him that officers are stuffed shirts and boring.
Was his dad in the same Navy I was? I’m just saying. His dad was a boatswain mate, so maybe he didn’t know--he probably never went near a Naval Air Station in his life. For one thing, Naval aviators are infamous party animals. John McCain was one, and he was not known for being respectful during officers’ events, he apparently was famous for bringing strippers or paid escorts. The infamous Tailhook convention that involved female officers being manhandled was attended primarily by Naval aviators. I’m telling you that if you were a female in the Navy, and had respect for yourself, you stayed clear of aviators and diesel sub sailors. I was stationed with aviators as a reservist at NAS Whidbey Island, and I never ONCE went out to “party” with those boys. That would have been sheer foolishness.
Magsaysay Boulevard in Olongapo City, right off Subic Bay Naval Shipyard, was just like the movie with prostitutes filling the sidewalks, everyone trying to sell you something, kids running around underfoot begging for money, people getting tattoos, and the ubiquitous street meat stinking things up. One thing the movie got wrong was that the women did not live in “whore houses.” They lived at home with their families and came into the city to work when the fleet came in. Very odd way of life, but understandable considering the poverty (you saw the alley the kids fought in). It would be very understandable that Mayo was not willing to have a relationship with a woman that would lead to marriage, because he would see her as an object to be used, not a partner.
Anyway, I digress. I want to really address women who chase after aviators. They called them “Puget Debs” in this movie. In other words, they were seen as whores. Seriously. To me there is nothing more boring than a woman who brags that she slept with aviators/SEALs/etc. My response to them is always, “If you want to impress me, why don’t you become an aviator/SEAL/etc. Those boys probably don’t even care. In fact they pay other women to do what you gave away for free.” In fact, Zach constantly asks Deborah Winger’s character if she goes to school or plans on improving her life in some proactive way. She instead explains that she wants to travel. Wait. What?
I just have no respect for women who wait for a man to do for them what they won’t do for themselves. It is B-O-R-I-N-G. Seriously. So this movie pisses me off. To no end. I always think I want to watch it and just cannot get past yelling at the television screen. Seriously. Does this woman think that she is going to get this guy by saying one thing and then acting as if she never believed anything she says? It is all too confusing.
The one woman worth respect in this movie is Seegar, who has a hard time pulling herself up over a wall. If she was in that training, I can guarantee she spent her whole life preparing for it. In real life, she probably could out pushup and pull up those guys. But of course, she can only pass when Mayo reaches out to help her. Sexist bullshit that. But she looked just like every female aviator I ever met. To a woman, they are all very smart and competent.
A pivotal scene in the movie involved Zach abandoning Deborah Winger’s character. She takes him home to her parent’s house for dinner, and reveals to him that her biological father was a pilot who abandoned her mother. Does Zach recognize himself and his parents? Does what he is doing slap him in the face? I am not quite sure the reasoning, but when she whips out the photo of her Naval aviator father, he runs.
The thing that is the most disturbing about this movie is the Gunnery Sergeant. Really? We have trainers like that? I think not. Nobody gets up and demonstrates karate or tai kwon do or whatever without explaining it while they do it. He definitely was showboating. And the regenerative violence between him and Mayo. Wait. What? How ridiculous. The rules and traditions of the military are in place so that no such foolishness ever occurs. That is just bullshit.
The best part of the movie however, is the Puget Sound. Every beautiful, green, wet, cold scene is worth the rest of the foolishness in this film. It was filmed in Port Townsend and Bremerton, both places that I am very familiar with and love to no end. What a visual feast.
The movie ends a la Cinderella with the Prince carrying off the girl from the ash pile after she gives up. Can you imagine their life together? I shudder. I imagine them divorced a few years later with a kid or two, and her finally figuring out that she can be the man she wants to marry.
So, in conclusion: This is a Cinderella story involving two psychologically scarred people. The Puget Sound is gorgeous. The seamier side of the Navy in foreign ports is true-to-life. The girls trying to catch aviators are out there, even though sisters should be doing it for themselves. Finally, I really cannot sit through this movie without getting angry.
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