Heartbreak Ridge

The basic story structure of Heartbreak Ridge sounds like a cliche. A veteran Marine, reaching his mandatory retirement age, is reassigned to the recon unit that launched his career. There, he takes a rebellious group of young soldiers and whips them into fighting shape. However, in a surprise twist, being cliche is not one of the movie’s faults.

Heartbreak Ridge weirdly shares a lot of similarities with Top Gun. Both movies are about the military without being war movies in the traditional sense. They are more concerned with the training before combat than combat itself, although both end with genuine engagements with the enemy. Where they really differ is in their thematic focus. Heartbreak Ridge is less concerned with the young hot shots and their egos and more interested with what happens when a grizzled old-timer who has actually seen war clashes with a complacent Marine Corp whose members don’t believe they will see combat during their tours of duty.

Another thing Heartbreak Ridge shares with Top Gun is that its quotability, and pop culture status within certain circles, far outweighs its actual quality as a movie. That said, Top Gun is a more consistent and solid piece of filmmaking. Heartbreak Ridge is a bit rough and even amateurish at times. The acting is spotty. Clint Eastwood is excellent throughout, but most of his fellow soldiers give lackluster performances, although the quality of the acting does seem to improve as the movie goes on. The story doesn’t hang together well, either. There is a side plot about Eastwood’s Thomas Highway reconnecting with his ex-wife, and other figures from his past, that never quite gels. As a result, while it adds some dimensionality to Highway’s character both as an individual and as a soldier, I was left wondering if that time wouldn’t have been better spent on the rest of the recon squad. For example, in The Dirty Dozen the team is shown coming together gradually over time, making their bonding feel natural and their affinity for unconventional tactics justified by their shared experiences. Heartbreak Ridge chooses not to use its time this way, so characters in the squad have epiphany moments and change their opinions on Highway and his methods quickly and radically. As a result, many of the on-base story beats feel rushed and unearned.

These problems extend to the final battles, where the recon unit is deployed to Grenada. Up until this point, the movie has been so centered on Highway that when the movie shifts focus from the individual to the unit it can be quite jarring. The audience is not as emotionally invested in the rest of the squad and so the stakes of each firefight don’t feel that high, unless Highway himself is threatened. This sudden shift of gears makes the short flurry of combat sequences in the climax feel disconnected from the rest of the movie and that lack of cohesiveness hinders their impact.

Heartbreak Ridge is a flawed movie with a few stand out elements. Eastwood gives a typically solid performance as a Korean War vet who is gruff and somewhat unlikeable but not unjustified in his worldview, a performance which can easily be seen as an antecedent to his part in Gran Torino. The subject matter, in particular a military that has forgotten its purpose is war readiness, is interesting and well explored. Those elements can be a bit hard to enjoy, however, when they are overshadowed by weak acting from the supporting characters, a bland and unfocused story, and some awkward pacing.

Would Recommend: If you are a jarhead and love all things Marine. Oorah.

Would Not Recommend: If you are looking for a traditional war movie, pro or anti.