This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
You Win Some, You Lose Some.
Plot Overview
Coast
Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) loses
his crew in a fiery crash during a rescue at sea, watches his best
friend slip away in the life boat, and has his wife Helen (Sela
Ward)—whom he's known “since we were kids”—move
out but she left his favorite chair. If this were a country song,
his dog would have died. He's already hanging in past the mandatory
rescue swimmer retirement age of 40 and is told to go recharge at
Shreveport, LA to help train new
swimmers at the USCG's
Aviation Survival Technician (AST) Program touted
as the toughest in the military. High school champion swimmer Jake
Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) is a new recruit out to beat Randall's every
record. Triple timer William Hodge is esteemed for his courage to
keep coming back for more, but there's one exercise even he won't
attempt; he's afraid to go talk to a girl at a wedding—although
he talks to his female classmate. Overly confident Fischer wants
to show them how it's done, and he even wagers on it. He approaches
the prettiest girl in the place, Emily Thomas (Melissa Sagemiller)
an elementary school teacher, and offers up a lame line such as he
used to get by with as a high school swimming champ. Helen having
been around the block a time or two makes a counter offer, that she'll
walk out with him if he'll split the money with her. Outside they agree to
meet next week in a local watering hole so he can pay her.
There
next week as he sidles up to the bar and she orders a beer, he remarks,
“So you are gonna have a drink with me.” She
counters with a laconic, “No, I'm having a drink near
you. Entirely different thing.” His sarcastic rejoinder:
“You're a real little lightning-rod, aren't you?” This
is a significant exchange vis-à-vis some high school grads
in the movie “Say
Anything” who correctly defined date as
“prearrangement with the possibility of love.” The
two of them are there by prearrangement but Miss Lightning Rod
has shut down any possibilities. However, Jake persists and she
agrees to one dance with him, “No attachments, just
casual.” They make moon eyes at each other while dancing and the next
morning he has to run from her place to almost make muster, his marching
classmates chanting a spontaneous chantey,
Jack Skinner: “Airman Fischer's coming in late, yeah!” Cadets: “Airman Fischer's coming in late, yeah!” Jack Skinner: “Must be nice to go out on a date, yeah!” Cadets: “Must be nice to go out on a date, yeah!”
After a number of such overnights, Jake asks her out on a “real date,” but she wants to stick with “casual” and points out they've been having real dates, she even went to bed with him on the first one. Jake persists and she relents. The movie shows us what they meant by a “real date;” it's one where they dress up to be seen together out on the town. He has a dress uniform for ceremonies, she has formal wear for school events, and they reserve a table at a steakhouse with a Maître 'D. But a dustup with some Navy men and a resulting lockup cause Jake to miss it, and she has parent-teacher conferences all through the week, so they're on hold. When they finally reconnect, Jake having faced death at the end of his training has a more serious attitude towards life and towards her. That's the reason for the prearrangement aspect of dating; sometimes the universe given a chance will put one in a-whole-nother frame of mind more conducive to survival of the species. Their casual dates were real ones, nonetheless, at least a reality his classmates envied. And even if he hadn't scored, they'd still be real dates from virgin Hodge's perspective.
Ideology
One of Kenny Rogers's songs concerned a chance
meeting with “The Gambler” on a train, who offered a passenger
the advice that “the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw
away and knowing what to keep.” The refrain of the song goes:
You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
This wisdom of the gambling man's repartee is old as the hills and was passed on by a raconteur, Agur in Proverbs 30:1, whose four metaphors offered the same life advice as did Rogers's Gambler. That we find in, (Prov. 30:29-31) “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”
We have Agur's “lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” and we have Rogers's “know[ing] when to hold 'em.” In our movie Jake knows when to persist in face of a girl's brush off.
We have Agur's “king, against whom there is no rising up,” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing] when to fold 'em” A king who knows when to give in to his subjects doesn't experience any uprising. Ben sets Helen free (“Ben, you're a bigamist”) by signing the divorce papers (“You've been married to the Coast Guard all along.”)
We have Agur's “he goat also” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing] when to walk away.” When his pretty pickup drives off without him, Jake can't very well turn around and go back in, because his ruse would be exposed. He's just got to walk away.
We have Agur's “greyhound” and Rogers's “Know[ing] when to run.” When Jake is late for muster, he runs like mad to make the best of it, they're very strict at that school.
The gambler gave the advice:
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.There are legends to be made.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
Production Values
“” (2006) was directed by Andrew Davis. It was written by Ron L. Brinkerhoff. It stars Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher and Sela Ward. Kutcher showed he can act. Ward did a good job as Ben's wife. Emily Thomas held down a night life with sailors a school teacher is not supposed to have. Costner lived up to expectations.
It's rated PG–13. It has a runtime of 2 hours, 19 minutes, without any fat. The soundtrack is worthy of an audiophile. There are rousing action scenes putting us right in the thick of it. The editing and pacing exceed expectations. Across the board we're given just enough to move the story along and tie it together. Aside from the two lead men, we're not invested in anyone too much, but as half the class gets flunked out, one of the two relationships fails, and the sea takes its share of the unlucky, there's a niggling suspicion that we can't expect both leads to survive their perilous calling.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
A short narration at the end mentions the Coast Guard's standardization that allowed teams from all over to work without a hitch at Hurricane Katrina. In the shade of that sentiment is the way these movies, viewed coast to coast, normalize dating relations so diverse people know what to expect and what's expected of them. For the Christian who balks at letting an immoral sailor & a town slut serve as role models, the example proper can be found reading Queen Esther's dating experience in the Bible, which I didn't tie in here but have done in other movie reviews.
This was a great action flick with some love scenes that didn't get too mushy. Well worth the viewing.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Rogers, Kenny. Songwriter Don Schlitz. “The Gambler.” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Pub. LLC. Web.
bibles.n7nz.org