Quite some time back now TCM ran a spotlight on actors before they became stars. One of the films they selected was the sort of 1980s film that I remember coming out in theaters but never got the chance to see back in the day because I was much too young for it. That movie is Taps, which helped launch the careers of Tom Cruise and Sean Penn.
Bunker Hill Military Academy is one of those venerable old private schools that uses military theory and education to mold young boys into men and prepare them to become the next class of officers in the American military. Harlan Bache (George C. Scott) is the school's commander general, leading a non-denominational military service to close out the academic year and name the end-of-the-alphabet alumni who gave their lives on the field of battle in wars of the past.
That evening, Bache meets with Brian Moreland (Timothy Hutton, who at the time was the star among the young cast members) to inform Moreland that he's going to be the school's Cadet Major the following year, which is basically the highest-ranking position any of the students can hold. Moreland returns to his dorm to his two best friends and seconds-in-command, Cadet Captain Dwyer (Sean Penn) and Cadet Captain Shawn (Tom Cruise), as well as to get ready to help run the school's summer programs and prepare formation for commencement the following day.
At commencement, Bache has a shocking announcement: the trustees of Bunker Hill have decided to sell the land and buildings that comprise the school to developers. But because everybody who's enrolled for the following year isn't going to be able to get a place in a different school at this late date, the trustees have generously allowed the school to remain open one more year, which will also allow seniors like Moreland, Dwyer, and Shawn to graduate. All of the students as well as Bache are none too pleased with this, but any protestations they make are going to fall on deaf ears.
Later that evening is the commencement dance, with Bache in the cadets all in full dress uniform. News of the school's impending closure has reached locals who apparently don't think about whether having this school here has economic benefits simply having more residential space might not. I'm guessing there have been other long-standing animosities between town and gown as it would be called with a traditional college, as some of the local boys of the same age as the cadets show up to taunt the cadets as everybody is coming to the dance. A scuffle ensues, and as Bache is trying to break things up, somebody goes for his gun, which is loaded and which goes off, seriously injuring one of the locals. In reaction to this and all the stress he's been under, Bache suffers a heart attack and is taken to hospital.
Cadet Major Moreland more or less sees himself as the highest ranking person around campus now, since there doesn't seem to have been any succession plan in place for Bache -- not that there needed to be since the school was going to be shut down after one more year. But Moreland comes up with the daring plan of occupying the school in order to get the trustees to listen to the cadets' message and possibly change their decision to sell off the school. Likely the contracts have already been signed so it's a fait accompli, but the cadets understandably would have overlooked that.
What happens is a standoff. The authorities could easily shut off water and electric and drive the students out in a day or two, but they'd like to do things more peacefully, because even Moreland is a kid who may at most only recently have reached the age of majority. Some of the younger cadets think of it at first as a jolly old game of war like the kids in No Greater Glory, while others only refuse to give up because they feel they're acting on orders and it would be desertion to give up. Moreland tries to act like a seasoned leader and use mature military tactics to keep the occupation going, but as time goes on a lot of kids do want to give up. Others, like Cadet Shawn, grow more radical.
I've read reviews from people who actually attended military schools that there's a lot about Taps that's fairly unrealistic. That's a fair criticism. However, I think that at heart Taps isn't really a military movie, but one that uses a military school to set up a character study. After all, there's a fair bit less action than you would expect from a real war movie. As a character study, and exploring themes like honor and duty, Taps works fairly well, thanks to good performances from the young stars. George C. Scott doesn't have quite as much to do, since he's out of the movie a third of the way in.
Taps isn't perfect by any means, but it's still a decidedly watchable movie.
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