Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: James Carabatsos, Dennis Hackin, Joseph Stinson

Composer: Lennie Niehaus

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, Moses Gunn, Eileen Heckart, Bo Svenson, Boyd Gaines, Mario Van Peebles, Peter Jason

More info: IMDb

Tagline: ...the scars run deep.

Plot: A hard-nosed, hard-living Marine gunnery sergeant clashes with his superiors and his ex-wife as he takes command of a spoiled recon platoon with a bad attitude.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Clint is great and grizzled as always.  He's one cantankerous S.O.B. and that's why you love him.  He behaves like I felt watching this movie.  It's frustrating.  On one hand he's fun to watch and you totally understand where he's coming from (most of the time) but on the other, you've got these over the top bozos he commands.  How in the hell would the Marines allow their shenanigans to begin with?  Sure, they're whipped into shape by the end of the movie but for the rest of it they're childish assholes.  Until they got their shit together it felt like they were in some frat house comedy.  I didn't like them and it brought the movie down, especially the annoying Mario Van Peebles (and the rest aren't far behind).  Now, when Clint gets knocked down near the end and he's lying on the back in the rain and you can barely hear him say, "Shit!"?  Classic.  I remember liking this quite a bit thirty years ago in my teens but not so much no.  Shit!