The General's Daughter

The first few minutes of A General's Daughter were disorientating for me. Here were all the fireworks and action that the trailers had threatened, but here also was the blessed John Travolta acting his little socks off in order to maintain an American South accent. This soon comes to and end and he becomes JT again. The smoke and lights were the tail end of his character's last adventure - a la every Bond movie. Still John is now the debonair army policeman. (CID. Criminal Investigation Department? Cops In Disguise if I remember my Z-cars.) This too does not last. JT soon dons a shabby raincoat and this becomes a mundane whodunit. Shame really. But better than I was expecting. Ron

After reading the very entertaining novel by Nelson De Mille, I was prepared for 2 hours of action and suspense, boy, was I wrong. The movie, which differs quite dramatically from the novel, is a lukewarm effort at best, Travolta plays Brenner an investigator with the Army who is assigned the task of finding out who killed the daughter of the base General, played by Joseph Cromwell, Brenner is teamed with former lover Sara Sunhill, in a one dimensional, flat performance by Madeline Stowe. A major problem with the movie is a distinct lack of chemistry between the 2 leads, you just dont believe they had been lovers at one point in time. While the movie is faithful in recreating the shocking double life of the victim, it falls flat at the climax, an unbelievable sequence in a rainstorm as the murderer is revealed, if youve read the book you will know who the killer is. All in all a most disappointing effort.

Dad and I like to go see mysteries, for the entertainment and for the mental exercise is trying to figure out the crime and perpetrators. This flick was definitely a good puzzle. The cast was pretty good, although Travolta I could have done without. Madeline Stowe was underused and gave pretty much her off-the-shelf talented-n-indignant characterization. Leslie Stefanson as the title character is a gutsy actress with a lot of talent. She's given little on-camera time but she dominates any scene she is in. And, getting outside the frame and into the actual filming, I have to commend her for her gutsiness to do the death scene. Naked and staked spread-eagled to the ground with her legs spread would have been hard enough for most actresses, but throw in the fact the set is rain-soaked.... It had to be a physically grueling scene to shoot. That she pulled it off and still gave a highly charged performance shows her dedication and skill as an actress.

Ugh - this was AWFUL. Travolta mails in his performance as a maverick investigator, but the worst thing is the script, which is straight out of 1943. A whole lot of lofty speeches about the noble Army life (does anyone think like this, even Colin Powell?) and you're supposed to care? Got to say that Madeline Stowe still looks very good - I never thought she'd make a worse movie than "Revenge", but here it is.

I had read the book before I saw the film .I give the film 8 out of 10 but the book the full10. The principal characters were perfectly portrayed in my opinion.

A very underreated thriller/murder mystery.. I'd say it is more than that because the message it conveys is strongly valid! All the female & male characters are so well played. Definitely a dark (military) academic movie (if you know what is Dark Academia)

This movie was extremely disappointing to me after having read the book by Nelson Demille (who happens to be my favorite author). I was unable to put the book down...I totally struggled through watching this movie, however. The movie did not do the novel justice and left out or changed many key parts. I usually don't expect any movie to be as good as the book, but this movie is by far the worst adaptation to a novel I have seen and I hope people don't judge one of the finest authors of our time by this disappointing movie.

Once more Hollywood tries to commit box office suicide by alienating their core audience with this "White-Heterosexual-Male = Bad, Woman/Black/Homosexual = Good" attempt to overload DeMille's book with a ham-handed message about women in the military.

"The General's Daughter" definitely has potential to be an interesting thriller. However, somewhere in the plot this potential is lost. The film is not bad, but it's certainly not very good either. My main objection is that I'm tired of this "Darn, I have to work with my ex-girlfriend" theme that you can see in so many films. Madeleine Stowe wasn't very good either -- although she wasn't bad. What I am trying to say is that this is such a typical thriller and it is so average. It was pretty entertaining for a while, but the film doesn't leave an impression at all. Very average. (5/10)

A beautiful young woman (Leslie Stefanson) is found raped and murdered. Not only is she an Army Captain, she is the daughter of a very popular General, played by James Cromwell. The general wants a hurried and hush-hush investigation that won't interfere with his political future. John Travolta plays Warrant Officer Paul Brenner that uncovers the victim's past as a major clue to her demise. Madeleine Stowe is co-investigator and verbal sparring partner for Travolta's character. Timothy Hutton and James Woods are also featured. Graphic scenes.