US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway (Clint Eastwood) had been in the Corps since the 1950s and was nearing mandatory retirement. Reassigned to Recon Marines, he found an undisciplined collection of dissolute Marines; Gunny Highway set to work forging them into an elite fighting force. However, he had to contend with Major Powers (Everett McGill), a professional paper-pusher who disliked Highway's checkered past. Then there was the issue of Tom's ex-wife, Aggie (Marsha Mason), who was dating a man who hated Marines. Tom was reading women's magazines for relationship advice with a notion of getting back together. At length, the invasion of Grenada in October 1983 tested his Marines and provided Highway with a final taste of combat before his retirement.
There are points when the movie shines and others when it drags. There are some great bits. One memorable one was that t-shirt matching during PT. That the goal post seemed to move each time was fun. Improvise, adapt, overcome. Heck, I remember hearing that from friends in the Marines. The battle in Grenada was surprisingly bland and included goofball A-Team silliness, such as driving a bulldozer (wow, handy that it is on the side of the road and available to the Marines) at an enemy machinegun position where the bullets ping against the raised blade. Yeah. But it wasn't raised high enough to cover the driver. Lucky the Cubans didn't aim a little higher. Well, this isn't a war movie, it's a dramedy?
Though the movie is set in 1983, the title refers to a battle fought during the Korean War (1950-53) by the US Army, not the Marines. It is revealed that Highway won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the battle and that he had been in the Army at the time. A thumbnail sketch of the battle is offered by Sergeant Major Choozoo (Arlen Dean Snyder), who was also a veteran of the battle. Well, that's good to know. Are there flashbacks? No. This is just to establish Highway's bona fides.
Just okay.
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