Synopsis
Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Foley. Mayo is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart, so Foley rides him mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with a working girl is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself.
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Cast
- Richard GereZack Mayo
- Debra WingerPaula Pokrifki
- Louis Gossett Jr.Sergeant Emil Foley
- David KeithSid Worley
- Robert LoggiaByron Mayo
- Lisa BlountLynette Pomeroy
- Lisa EilbacherCasey Seeger
- Harold SylvesterPerryman
- David CarusoTopper Daniels
- Grace ZabriskieEsther Pokrifiki
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
An Officer and a Gentleman is the best movie about love that I've seen in a long time. - 90
The New York Times
Undeniably, there's an element of corniness to this. But that doesn't keep An Officer and a Gentleman from being a first-rate movie - a beautifully acted, thoroughly involving romance. - 90
Variety
An Officer and a Gentleman deserves a 21-gun salute, maybe 42. Rarely does a film come along with so many finely-drawn characters to care about. - 88
TV Guide Magazine
The performances are uniformly strong, with Gere offering some of his best work - though it pales in comparison with Gossett's tour de force as the tough, principled Sgt. Foley. - 80
Chicago Reader
An awesomely, stiflingly professional piece of work, with a fleet, superficial visual style, perfectly placed climaxes, and a screenplay (by Douglas Day Stewart) that doesn't waste a single character or situation - everything is functional, and nothing but functional. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
From its title on down, An Officer and a Gentleman (at the Plaza) is both a thoroughly rousing crowd-pleaser and a shamelessly manipulative banner-waver, a homage to the never-practiced ethics of a non-existent era. [28 Jul 1982] - 50
Boston Globe
An Officer and a Gentleman has so many echoes that it never finds its own voice. [29 Jul 1982] - 40
Time
The result is a Big Mac of a movie, junk food that somehow reaches the chortling soul.
