TAPS (PG, 1981)

Brian Moreland (Timothy Hutton) is excitedly preparing for his senior year at Bunker Hill Military Academy. He's been appointed the cadet major -- the highest-ranking student at the academy. He should be on top of the world, but the world is changing. People look at the academy and its students as an "anachronism" and insane, explains General Harlan Bache (George C. Scott). "It is insane to cling to honor in a world where honor is held in contempt," he intones. So when the board of trustees decides to sell the school to real estate developers, Brian takes it on himself to lead his peers in the battle to save the school. But can Brian handle the responsibility? Can he carry out Bache's call to save the school? Will adults bargain with a teenager? And can he gain the other soldiers' respect?

Few films capture what it means to play at war -- and to experience a real battle -- than TAPS, which is a brilliant tragedy. Director Harold Becker and writer Robert Mark Kamen thoroughly explore what war meant in 1981. After all, in 1981, there was no serious war underway in the U.S. War was not an immediate, tangible thing to most Americans. Instead, the war at Bunker Hill is theoretical and ideological. It's an idea borne of the culture wars, where the noblesse of the military contrasts sharply with the crassness of the outside world -- or so it seems.

As the film progresses, it seems to question everything it sets up in the first half, challenging viewers to consider whether this battle is worth fighting to the death, juxtaposing the "playing at war" with the reality of a military battle, with deserters, sanctions, and fatalities.

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Harold Becker
Cast: Sean Penn, Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise
Genre: Drama
Run time: 126 minutes
Theatrical release: September 25, 1981
DVD release: September 12, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG
MPAA explanation: violence, bloodshed, and thematic intensity.