Product Description

The riveting tale that took America by storm is now an unstoppable force: TAPS: 25th Anniversary Edition packs an arsenal of extras including an all-new on-camera interview with Timothy Hutton an Audio Commentary two Featurettes and more! "Unequivocally thought-provoking" (Variety) and "spiked with beautiful performances (Los Angeles Times) from a cast including Timothy Hutton Tom Cruise Sean Penn and George C. Scott this definitive edition of the jarring film delivers an emotional wallop!When a fiercely devoted group of Military School cadets learn that their school is being sold to real estate developers they refuse to accept defeat...instead choosing to rise up together to protect the Academy and their honor. But the brave young soldiers soon learn that the most courageous decisions can sometimes have unexpected and even fatal consequences!System Requirements:Running Time: 126 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 024543267515 Manufacturer No: 2236751

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6437 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2006-09-12
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Memorable mostly as the film that introduced filmgoers to Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, both of whom nearly steal the film from its nominal star, Timothy Hutton. Hutton, fresh from his Oscar for Ordinary People, plays the top cadet at a private military school run by George C. Scott. When the announcement is made that the school will be closed, the inmates take over the asylum with military precision. Hutton is caught among his sense of duty to mentor Scott, the rabid militarism of cadet Cruise, and the rational arguments of Penn, as Hutton's best friend. Then a cadet kills one of the cops responding to the crisis, and suddenly this game of playing soldiers takes on a warlike atmosphere. But director Harold Becker can't hold it together; Hutton isn't up to carrying the film, and the tension rapidly drains from the Darryl Ponicsan script. --Marshall Fine

On the DVD
Taps 25th Anniversary Special Edition special features contains two featurettes that will excite one to see the film again. Watching Taps in theatres upon its release was watching Hollywood history in the making. In the 30-minute featurette, Sounding the Call to Arms: Mobilizing the Taps Generation, director Harold Becker and producer Stanley R. Jaffe discuss casting the then-unknown actors: Tom Cruise (who was originally cast as an extra), Sean Penn (who they plucked off Broadway for this, his first film) and Timothy Hutton (who began shooting Taps immediately after winning an Oscar for his first film). Much discussion is also allotted to George C. Scott and his role and participation on the set. Jaffee discusses the book upon which the movie was based, and the importance that the story be told from the boys' perspective. Stars Timothy Hutton and Ronny Cox speak about their experiences on the film and regale some interesting anecdotes (Hutton playing chess with Scott), and expose what was happening behind the scenes during certain shots. Also interviewed are Director of Photography Owen Roizman and film critic Richard Schnickel. It is not clear as to why Schnickel was relevant to this particular film, although he did have compelling analysis. The second featurette, The Bugler's Cry: The Origins of Playing Taps, is a seven-minute history lesson on the meaning of the tune "Taps," told and played by a bugler. Clever it was to include this information, and a nice extra bonus to stumble upon. The director's commentary is included as an additional feature, and the humanistic connection director Harold Becker has to this film is clearly felt. --Rachel Moss

Customer Reviews

"It's beautiful, man, beautiful!!!"
This is a thoroughly enjoyable, if not completely beleivable, movie - but then who said movies were supposed to be completely beleivable?

What was believable were the performances of the actors involved. Timothy Hutton was perfect as the sensible yet fiercly principled and devoted leader of a group of boys at a military school, and Tom Cruise dynamite as the head of the Red Berets. Keep in mind George C. Scott, the general, when he mentions to the newly appointed Timothy Hutton how war brings out the "wolf", a kind of primal elation that a man realizes only in warfare. And many other things which help build a logic for what follows in the movie.

I was kind of in awe of it the first time I saw it some 26 years ago in a movie theater as an eleven-year-old kid. I saw it again tonight on dvd then just to test my childhood powers of perception, to see if it was as cool as i remembered it, and it pretty much was! Two thumbs up, Ebert!

Tom Cruise IS crazy!
I loved this movie when it first came out. Tim Hutton and Sean Penn are brilliant. Watching all these years later, though, I find myself wondering why there are no faculty at this school. No staff, no maintenance crew, only the General and a bunch of boys. Odd. Even more odd is that I didn't even notice 20 years ago. Still, a good watch on a rainy day, even it's just to see Tom Cruise firing a machine gun out the window like a maniac and screaming, "It's beautiful, Man!!! Beautiful!!!"

This movie shows how "honor" means nothing anymore
Here you have a military academy, which teaches our youngest Americans to be military cadets. But, when the state decides that there is no longer any use for the academy, especially since the mayor feels that the grounds could serve as something more profitable than a military academy, the general (George C. Scott) who runs the academy (who has fought in many true wars), is told to address the cadets that the academy will close in one year. All that you've learned about "honor", just forget about it. It was a 151 year old joke and a waste of your time.

At the 151 year celebration of the academy, a bunch of drunk teens come to mess with the cadets and, of course, a fight escalated and the general himself pulls his gun and accidentally shoots one of the raucous drunk teens. He then has a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital expecting to face charges for the accidental shooting. It is then decided that the academy must shut down immediately. The highest ranking cadet (Timothy Hutton) decides that he will not just shut down the academy just because the governor says so. So he, Sean Penn, and Tom Cruise, and about a hundred cadets of various ages, establish their own call to arms and defend the academy against the governor. The governor even brings out the real military to shut down the academy. Of course, there's not a happy ending to this film. Kids die standing up for what they've been taught to believe in, and all the good that could have come from these future defenders of our country is suddenly meaningless. This film sends the message that the human mind is expendable. Yes, we want to teach you "honor" and yes we want you to fight for whatever cause the government may send you off to do. But, we also want you to be able to turn it off like a "switch", and return to being the useless drunk teens that put their thumbs to their noses in the name of our country's true integrity. In this film, "honor" is proven to be an inconvenience if the government sees something more profitable to itself by other means.

It's an excellent film, but it sure can make you mad. Add this film to your anti-establishment - "it's us against them" films.