The Lords of Discipline

If there were no Pat Conroy novel to compare this film to, the movie might fare better. Gone is the "love interest" (major) and added is a much more upbeat ending. Conroy's novels tend toward cynicism and this one is no different. Keith and Prosky do a good job of creating two of the main characters. There is some suspense toward the end, but too much is communicated too fast to be believable. Location shots are impressive (England!) and the pacing is right. The music (Howard Blake) is weak. One would like to have seen this film directed by Sam Peckinpah or Martin Scorsese.

The armed services of the U.S. have spent years trying to define and instill the core values that they wish the Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman to possess. The military realizes that not many people have learned those core values from their home life. Induction into the service is a metamorphosis into a new life and it involves making over the former civilian into the servicemember -- body and mind. In this excellent fictional movie, the Commandant and his "Ten" lost track of the distinction between pride in their accomplishments and...elitism. Will and The Bear had honor. Will's moral courage exemplified the core values that the military strives to teach its members today.

The movie is adequate and casting for "The Bear" was perfect. The film lost the eliminate of mystery and intrigue the book had. By showing "The Ten" to early and on campus they stole from the mythology of the fraternity. On the other hand, it is impossible to make a film that lives up to a Conroy novel as their is just too much. If a producer was smart they would hire Pat Conroy to make a TV series out of any one of his novels. I don't mean a mini series, but an actual TV series that would probably need to run three seasons. If Conroy didn't want to write the series than David E. Kelley could possibly do justice to many of Conroy's novels or in the case of the Lords Of Discipline Arron Sorkin could possibly write it. Obviously Pat would be the ideal writer though. Trying to do any Conroy novel in a two or even three hour film is just ridiculous. That's why "The Prince of Tides" was such a bad film. It did not stand a chance of having even the same story line as the novel because the real story could not be covered by a film.

I graduated from The Citadel and can tell you that the book is not a standing joke on campus and that almost everyone reads it during their knob year for their English class. It is true that upperclassmen are not allowed to touch knobs but this is a rule that was very loosely enforced in the 60s. I was not there in the 60s but it is a well known fact on campus and by alumni. I have never heard anything of that nature and I believe they made it worse than it really was in order to make people watch it and enjoy reading the book. All in all the book is much better than the movie. Read the book don't watch the movie, or at least read the book first.

The movie itself was mediocre-- but having read Pat Conroy's incredible novel, filled with cynicism, cruelty, depth, and of cource, deceit-- all that good stuff. Alas, without a love interest, the myriad losses, and the absolutely imperative dips into the depths of Senior Private Will McLean's psyche, this movie is simply a hollow time-waster about a Southern Military school. Read the book, skip the film-- or better yet (since the film was actually rather enjoyable) see the film first, and then bask in the sheer, dark goodness of Pat Conroy's writing. If only there were no Pat Conroy novel, this movie would be an enjoyable flick... Oh well.