classicsoncall I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan but there was something about this film that just felt off to me. I've never served in the military, but my son served in the Marines and simply based on some of his boot camp stories I could tell that the kind of recon platoon that Gunnery Sergeant Highway (Eastwood) encountered on his first day back would never have existed in real life. So early on, one has to view the story as one in which all the stereotypes apply, as Eastwood's character takes on the mission of whipping his boys into shape while challenging the arrogance and ineptitude of his superior officers. Malcolm Powers (Everett McGill) looked and acted like someone who could have been a Marine Major, but the portrayal of Lieutenant Ring (Boyd Gaines) seemed to come out of left field. He just seemed totally out of his element.Then, when the action shifted to actual combat during the invasion of Grenada, the film really took on an air of incredulity. With a population of about ninety one thousand at the time, it felt like there was no one else on the island except the Marines and a minor opposing force of revolutionary soldiers. There were the American medical students of course, about the only thing that felt accurate historically.This wasn't Clint Eastwood's first directorial effort, so I can't really account for the movie's lack of authenticity. One's best approach to the picture probably ought to be one of settling back and suspending disbelief, and enjoy the story as any another Eastwood actioner. I did get a big kick out of the Gunny quote to his new platoon that I mention in my summary line above. I had a boss in the supermarket business that would state "I'm here to tell you..." at least a couple of times in every speech he ever gave.

elcoat In October 1983, after I had heard that the Marxist prime minister of Grenada had been murdered in a pro-Soviet coup, over my lunch hour I literally ran down from the Alaska State Office Building in Juneau (wherein I worked in the Alaska State Library) to the Alaska Federal Building and breathlessly burst into the Congressional offices. To my friends there, I hoarsed out that the government of Grenada was now illegitimate, that it was open season for anyone to liberate Grenada, and to get on the phone to Sen. Ted Stevens' foreign affairs staffer and ask him to tell Ted that we could turn the Cold War completely around if we acted militarily FAST.I am sure it wasn't just me thinking this. In any case, staffers reputedly brought the decision to act militarily to President Reagan on the golf course, and after a few moments ... in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt ... he said YES, and Operation "Urgent Fury" was launched. (Granted, Maggie Thatcher's Commonwealth feathers were ruffled and *she* was furious, but President Reagan brought her around with his great Irish charm.) And our liberation of Grenada was indeed the boots on the ground military turning point of the Cold War, leading to our - and everyone's - Cold War victory *without* a World War 3.What people have forgotten is that just before, our Marine barracks in Beirut Lebanon had been suicide-bombed and in that post-Vietnam era, our national morale was rock-bottom. On 1Sep83, there had also been the Red Air Force's ... unanswered ... massacre of Korean Air Lines flight 007, which had flown over Sakhalin Island - maybe unintentionally, maybe not, but nonetheless ....Seldom have a nation's feelings ... and actions ... transformed so quickly as ours did with our Grenada operation.Clint Eastwood's depiction of the Marine Corps and that military operation may be in some ways flawed, but nonetheless is an excellent depiction of all this and the of Marine Corps community's ready response.For veterans like myself - Army draftee, Stateside and West Germany, 67-69 - it can be enjoyably funny. It was the first time I had ever heard the phrase "cluster f**k." We might keep in mind, though, how we reacted when Russia threatened our inner national security zone, when we criticize Russia's reaction to our own machinations within *its* inner national security zone today in Ukraine. If we don't, we could escalate this situation into nuclear holocaust overnight.Lou Coatney

AaronCapenBanner Clint Eastwood plays gunnery sergeant Tom Highway, a tough but rogue military man(and occasional alcoholic) who is often in trouble with his superiors, when he isn't getting in bar fights. He has a distinguished war record(Korea & Vietnam) that gets him some begrudging respect from his colleagues. He is given one more assignment: to train an unruly and disorganized young platoon into shape, before they are sent off into action.Eastwood is believable as the profane and ultra no-nonsense sergeant, but this film is ultimately too long and predictable to succeed, and strangely resembles "Stripes", just from the military's point of view! Still, it does contain good(if familiar) action scenes.

gamay9 'Grand Torino' was great, but 'Heartbreak Ridge' held my attention longer, until the Grenada incident. The wordplay is super; the Marines rejected the film because they think like Maj. Powers, i.e. 'politically correct.' Who cares if the scenes were filmed in CA rather than NC? It's an economics lesson. Pendleton is closer to L.A. than Camp LeJune.I particularly liked the way Highway 'picked' on a particular 'uppity' negroid; equally to whites. The film industry is hiring too many blacks when they only form about 12% of the U.S. population. In film and commercials, blacks are portrayed at way more than 12% of the population. Ditzy and horny blonds can have their negroid boyfriends. I'm sure glad I'm old and I don't have to put women in the category of being tarts for blacks for all the wrong reasons. 'Heartbreak Ridge' doesn't discriminate against anyone; it simply tells it like it is.