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An Officer and a Gentleman
(1982)
In director Taylor Hackford's and Paramount's R-rated
blockbuster (chick-flick) and crowd-pleasing romantic drama about
the training of US Navy Aviation officer candidate, and his on-again/off-again
romantic relationship with a local townie, one of the 'Puget Debs'
- who worked at a paper factory and helped to reveal his inner "gentleman":
- the main character was aloof, cynical, arrogant,
cocky Navy cadet trainee Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) during his 13-week
training at Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) in Port Rainier,
located on the Puget Sound in Washington state
- in a flashback, during his childhood, Zack had been brought
up unwanted by his boozing, hedonistic, military seaman father
Byron Mayo (Robert Loggia) in the Philippines after his abandoned
mother committed suicide
- no-nonsense and tough drill Marine Gunnery Sgt.
Emil Foley (Oscar-winning Louis Gossett, Jr.) confronted the
new recruits in a line-up in front of him before their 13 week
training program - he delivered a series of insults to them: "I
said fall in, you slimy worms! Put your toes on that chalk line!
I said put your toes on the chalk line, you slimy worms! I don't
believe what I'm seeing. Where you been all your lives, at an orgy?
Listening to Mick Jagger music and bad-mouthing your country, I'll
bet. Stop eyeballing me. You're not worthy to look your superiors
in the eye. Use your peripheral vision. Understand?...I know why
most of you are here. I'm not stupid. Before you get to sell what
we teach you over at United Airlines, got to give the Navy six
years of your life, sweet pea. Lots of things can happen in six
years. Another war could come up....Are you a queer, boy?...Only
two things come out of Oklahoma. Steers and queers. Which one are
you, boy? I don't see no horns. You must be a queer"
- the raw, tattooed, long-haired recruit Zack, with
a chip on his shoulder, was confronted by the officer when he laughed,
and Sgt. Foley tore into him: "You
laughing at me, dickbrain?...You better stop eyeballing me, boy,
I'll rip your eyeballs out of their sockets and skull f--k you to
death..." -
he adopted a nickname for Zack: "Mayo-nnaise!"
- a romance developed between
Zack and headstrong, husky-voiced, Polish, local paper factory working
girl Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger), one of the local 'Puget Debs'
or "townies"
who dreamt of marrying a naval officer; when they first met at a
sponsored officer's dance, they learned a little about each other's
aspirations, and he complimented her with a kiss: "Paula,
you are a very, very pretty girl"; she kissed him back, and
then innocently asked: "Do you want to go somewhere else?";
they left the dance and were
kissing outdoors when he suggested: "Let's go down to the beach";
as their affair heated up, so did their kissing
Zack's Relationship with Paula
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At Officers' Dance
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First Kiss
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Outdoors
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- Sgt. Foley punished Zack and reprimanded
him for not being a team player - after discovering that he was
running a contraband side business of selling shined shoes and
belt buckles; over an entire weekend, trainee Zack was brutally
hazed but was powerfully determined to not quit his recruit training
and self-issue a DOR (Drop Out on Request) to be removed: (Foley:
"I want your DOR...All right, then you can forget it! You're
out!" Mayo: "I ain't gonna quit...Don't you do it! Don't
you - I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g... I ain't
got nothin' else. I got nothin' else")
Foley: "I want your DOR!" Zack: "I
ain't gonna quit...I got nowhere else to go!"
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- Paula and Zack experienced an up-and-down relationship
- she challenged him for not showing a commitment: (Paula: "I
don't know who you think you're talking to, you know. I'm not some
whore you brought in here. I'm trying to be nice to you. I'm trying
to be your friend, Zack." Zack: "Well, then be a friend.
Get out of here." Paula: "Fine. Fine. You know, man.
You ain't nothing special. You got no manners. You treat women
like whores. And if you ask me, you ain't got no chance of being
no officer")
- the next morning, Paula challenged him: "I
dare you not to fall in love with me. I mean, how can you resist?
I'm like candy." He assured her: "You're better than
candy." She replied: "It's going to be very hard to get
enough. Very hard. Very hard." He called her a "little
cocky Pollack," and they fell to the floor and kissed. She
asked: "So, Zack, what do you do with a girl when you're through
with her, huh? Do you say something, or you just disappear, huh?"
- they experienced an erotic, realistic and sexually
explicit nude love scene, commencing with steamy kisses, in which
she wriggled and straddled atop him and then eased herself off
of him ("Bye, Zachary")
Erotic Love-Making Between Zack and Paula
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- during the feel-good 'obstacle
course' scene, Zack had a chance to set a record-winning pace,
but decided to fall back to encourage, coach and assist struggling
fellow recruit Casey Seeger (Lisa Eilbacher) to "walk
that wall" - to succeed climbing up a steep 12 foot high wall during the challenge
- Zack's All-American boyish buddy from Oklahoma,
Sid Worley (David Keith) had also established a romantic relationship
with Paula's manipulative work friend Lynette Pomeroy (Lisa Blount),
who was dropping hints that she was pregnant; impulsively, Sid
decided to DOR from the naval aviation program after 11 weeks;
he proceeded to Lynette's house to propose to her with an engagement
ring, and suggested that they move back to Oklahoma (where he would
take back his old job at JC Penney's)
- to his surprise, Lynette cruelly rejected his romantic
invitation - she also told Sid that she wasn't pregnant and that their relationship was
over because she really wanted to marry a naval aviator: "I'm
sorry, Sid. But I don't want to marry you. I really like you, and
we've had ourselves some really great times, but I thought you
understood. I want to marry a pilot. I want to live my life overseas
- the wife of an aviator! Damn you! Goddamn you! Nobody DORs after
11 weeks! Nobody!"
- Zack confronted Lynette after
she had coldly rejected Sid, and accused her of faking being pregnant,
when she admitted: "I don't want no Okie from
Muskogee. I can get that right here"; Zack angrily charged
her with manipulation: "You little bitch. Who the hell do you think you are, playing with people
like that? He loves you! You just s---t on him! You made up this
whole thing, didn't you? There wasn't any baby...You little c--t"
- tragically, Zack discovered
the dead body of Sid (in the nude in the Tides Inn Motel bathroom),
where he had committed suicide by hanging after his failed relationship
with Lynette; Zack was dismayed and spoke to his dead friend: "You
dumb, f--kin' Okie. I was your friend. Why didn't you come and
talk to me about it? You didn't even try. You didn't even say goodbye
to me"
- Zack was utterly frustrated with the death of Sid,
and was tempted to also DOR from the base; conflicted about what
to do, he spoke to Paula on the beach, who continued to profess
her true love for him: ("Zack, don't do this to yourself.
You didn't kill your mother. You didn't kill Sid. They killed themselves.
There's nothing you could have done about it...You're not the only
one that's feeling awful. Maybe I had something to do with what
happened. I knew what Lynette was doing. I could have done something
and I didn't...I never lied to you. I never did what Lynette's
doing. I'm not Lynette....I love you. I've loved you since I met
you. Don't you understand?")
- Zack engaged in a bruising, ball-busting unofficial
martial-arts bout with Sgt. Foley ("Let's see what ya got")
that changed his mind about requesting a DOR
- in the rousing, overly-sentimental, slightly-cheesy
tearjerking finale (a wish-fulfillment Cinderella conclusion),
graduate-trainee Ensign Zack Mayo (in his neatly-pressed naval dress
whites after being commissioned) came up to a surprised Paula at
her factory workplace; she turned around - startled, as he planted
a very intimate kiss on her by grabbing her face
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- as the scene continued, she placed her arms around
his neck during the kiss, as he swooped her up into his arms; he
hoisted her up and spun her around; they kissed repeatedly; he
grabbed her and carried her away to the exit while she was in his
arms, as co-workers applauded and Paula's work friend Lynette called
out: "Way
to go, Paula! Way to go!"
- the film concluded in a freeze-frame after she placed
his cap on her head, with the credits displayed to the tune of the
Oscar-winning "Up
Where We Belong," performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
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Flashback: Young Zack with His Father
Sid (David Keith) in the New Recruit Line-Up: "Steers
and Queers. Which one are you, boy?"
Zack's Eyeballing of Foley in The Line-Up
Townies: Brunette Paula (Debra Winger) and Blonde Lynette
(Lisa Blount)
Mayo to Fellow Recruit Seeger on the Obstacle Course: "Walk
That Wall!"
After His DOR, Sid's Marriage Proposal to Lynette was
Rejected
Zack Confronted Lynette Who Had Rejected Sid: "I
don't want no Okie from Muskogee"
The Tragic Hanging Suicide of Zack's Buddy Sid
Zack's Misgivings About Everything and His Relationship
with Loving Girlfriend Paula
Zack's Defeat by Foley in a Martial-Arts Bout
The Crowd-Pleasing 'Cinderella Story' Ending
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