The General's Daughter (film)

The General's Daughter is a 1999 American mystery thriller film directed by Simon West and starring John Travolta. The plot concerns the mysterious death of the daughter of a prominent Army general. The film is based on the 1992 novel by the same name by Nelson DeMille.

This article is about the film. For the source book, see The General's Daughter (novel).
The General's Daughter
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySimon West
Screenplay byChristopher Bertolini
William Goldman
Based onThe General's Daughter
1992 novel
by Nelson DeMille
Produced byMace Neufeld
Starring
CinematographyPeter Menzies Jr.
Edited byGlen Scantlebury
Music byCarter Burwell
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • June 18, 1999 (1999-06-18)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60-95 million[1][2]
Box office$149.7 million[2]

Plot

While in Georgia, Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, an undercover agent of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division Command, masquerades as First Sergeant Frank White to broker an illegal arms trade with a self-proclaimed freedom fighter.

On a local army base, Brenner gets a flat tire and Elisabeth Campbell, a captain in psychological operations and the daughter of Lieutenant General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Campbell, the base commanding officer, helps him change it. The next evening she is found murdered. The base provost marshal, Colonel William Kent, secures the crime scene. Brenner and rape specialist Warrant Officer Sara Sunhill are brought in to investigate. They receive Elisabeth’s records and notice that her grades plummeted her second year at West Point. Brenner wants to search Elizabeth’s house, but Kent declines because it is off base and therefore outside their jurisdiction.

Picking the lock of Elisabeth's house, Brenner and Sunhill find a room containing video and BDSM equipment, but an intruder attacks him and removes the videotapes. He questions Elisabeth's superior officer, Colonel Robert Moore, who evasively gives a false alibi, leading to Moore's arrest on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer.

At the crime scene, Sunhill is attacked in an attempt to intimidate her and Brenner. During the attack she notices one assailant is wearing a silver claddagh ring, and identifies him as Captain Jake Elby. At gunpoint, Elby confesses that Elisabeth was sexually promiscuous with the men on the base as part of an extensive "psychological warfare" campaign against her father.

Back at the jail, Kent releases Moore, confining him to quarters at his home on-base. Upon returning to Moore's home, he, Brenner, and Sunhill find him dead with an apparently self-inflicted bullet to the head, which Brenner doubts was suicide. Campbell's adjutant, Colonel George Fowler, attempts to close the investigation stating Moore killed himself out of guilt, but Brenner insists on continuing the investigation.

Brenner and Sunhill visit West Point psychiatrist Colonel Donald Slesinger, who explains seven years earlier during a training exercise, several cadets brutally gang-raped Elisabeth and staked her down in the same position she was found murdered, and a cadet came forward regarding Elisabeth’s attack. Sunhill tracks down the former cadet and tricks him into admitting his presence during the attack; feeling trapped and guilt-ridden, he admits to witnessing it and explains how the male cadets hated Elisabeth, since she surpassed them as a cadet.

Brenner visits the general, who corroborates the attack and confirms that before visiting Elisabeth in the hospital, he met with another general, who felt the assailants would go undetected given the type of training exercise and stated the attack going public could ruin the concept of women in the military. Campbell reluctantly agreed and tried to convince Elisabeth to forget the attack, effectively traumatizing her.

After revealing that Sunhill easily identified Elisabeth's assailants, who face 20 years in prison, Brenner deduces Elisabeth had Moore help her stage the attack scene so she could force her father to see the scene of the attack he covered up. Campbell states that he threatened Elisabeth with a court martial due to her affairs with multiple officers, including Kent, and that she responded to his ultimatum with the staged attack scene. Unmoved, he left her tied to the stakes.

Realizing that Kent releasing Moore from prison, taking Elisabeth’s keys, and sleeping with her makes him a suspect, Brenner learns that Kent is at the crime scene with Sunhill and wants him to join them. At the scene, Kent admits his obsession with Elisabeth and that after he found her at the staged scene, upset over her father being unmoved by her effort, she dismissed Kent and spat in his face. Enraged, he strangled her. After admitting to murdering Moore to evade detection, Kent then commits suicide by stepping on a mine.

As Campbell prepares to get on the plane to accompany Elisabeth's body to the funeral, Brenner confronts him and blames him for her death, explaining that his betraying her effectively killed her and Kent just put her out of her misery. Though Campbell warns him to keep silent, Brenner has him court-martialed for conspiracy to conceal a crime, ruining the general's career.

Cast

Production

The General's Daughter was directed by Simon West and produced by Mace Neufeld. It was an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name, written by Nelson DeMille and published in 1992. William Goldman did some work on the script. Michael Douglas was originally attached to star.[3]

Much of the film was filmed in various locations in and around Savannah, Georgia.

A love scene between Travolta and Stowe was cut from the final film.[4]

Two key changes were made after test screenings: Travolta's character made a stronger moral stand at the end, and it became clearer at the beginning that he was a military investigator working undercover.[5]

Talking about the rape scene, Leslie Stefanson said, "It was horrible for me, but there was no way to avoid it. I don't want to necessarily ever do it again, but an important message could be brought up by it."[6]

Reception

Box office

Against an estimated budget from $60 to $95 million,[1][2] The General's Daughter grossed almost $103 million at the domestic box office, contributing to a worldwide gross of $150 million.[2]

Critical response

The General's Daughter had generally negative reviews with a 22% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews with an average rating of 4.3/10. The consensus is "Contrived performances and over-the-top sequences offer little real drama".[7] On Metacritic the film has a score of 47% based on reviews from 24 critics.[8] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.[9]

Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out 4, describing The General's Daughter as well-made and with credible performances, but marred by a death scene that was "so unnecessarily graphic and gruesome that by the end I felt sort of unclean."[10]

References
  1. "The General's Daughter (1999) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  2. "The General's Daughter". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  3. Smith, Liz (11 December 1997). "If It's Uma - OK!". Newsday. p. A15. ProQuest 279061104.
  4. Giammarco, David (5 June 1999). "From the deep south to outer space: John Travolta plays a military sleuth in his new film The General's Daughter. In next year's Battlefield Earth, he's a 10-foot-tall alien invader". National Post. p. 4. ProQuest 329519951.
  5. Portman, Jamie (11 June 1999). "Movie thriller may upset U.S. military". North Bay Nugget. p. C10. ProQuest 352486546.
  6. "The stars of 'The General's Daughter' defend their film's violence". ew.com. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  7. "The General's Daughter". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  8. "The General's Daughter". Metacritic.
  9. "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  10. Ebert, Roger (1999). "The General's Daughter". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
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