G.I. Jane

As Jordan O'Neil, the first (fictional) woman ever to take on the testosterone-soaked hell that is Navy SEAL training, Demi Moore gives the best performance of her career--the role perfectly suits her grim, humorless, determined persona. (I'd love to see her in the next Terminator movie...preferably as a Terminator.) Ideologically, the film is repugnant--O'Neil earns the respect of her peers and superiors only by gradually transforming herself into a man, and the brutal, sadistic, rigidly conformist military ethos is never questioned for a moment--but that doesn't make it entirely ineffective. Director Ridley Scott is clearly incapable of distinguishing a good script from a bad one--this is the guy who went directly from Thelma & Louise to 1492: Conquest of Paradise, you'll recall--but he knows how to use a movie camera, and G.I. Jane's training sequences, which comprise a hefty percentage of the film's running time, are both visually stunning and emotionally grueling. True, his direction sometimes verges on the ludicrous ("okay, scumbags, drop and gimme 200...and don't mind that helicopter pointlessly hovering over your heads, it's just for atmosphere"), but he gives the film's familiar material the zing that it requires. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)