Gny. Sgt. Tom Highway (Clint Eastwood) is a highly decorated but chronically insubordinate Marine nearing retirement age. He is sent back to his old stomping grounds to train a group of ragtag Marines in preparation for the invasion of Grenada. Neither his charges, his inexperienced commanding officers or his ex-wife (Marsha Mason) expect him to succeed, but Highway is determined not to quit.
Named for a Korean War battle, the film’s title pulls double duty as Highway tries to get his ex back. Eastwood’s in good form as the tough, hard-drinking Gunny, but the material and supporting cast are beneath him. Mason does her fair share of pushing away before inevitably giving in and Everett McGill is one dimensional as an antagonistic, by-the-book major. Mario Van Peebles at least livens things up as a corporal who moonlights as a rock musician, but he’s hard to take seriously as a fighting man.
The film’s whole problem is one of tone. For the first two thirds of the film, Highway’s Recon Marines are depicted as rejects and losers (who the veteran sergeant will turn around using some unorthodox methods, of course). As a comedy in the Major League/Bad News Bears vein, this would have been derivative and a bit tasteless, but it might have worked. Instead, the film does away with all notions of farce by launching into full-scale combat during the final third. Despite being written by a Vietnam vet and loosely inspired by true events, the war scenes felt preposterous and cartoonish. Amid heavy gunfire and tank, only one friendly bites the dust and you know it’s not going to be Clint.
As mindless entertainment, Heartbreak Ridge delivers with its sense of fun intact. But as a war film, it makes a mockery of our armed forces and falls incredibly flat. The fault doesn’t lie with Eastwood, but even he’s not a miracle worker.
6.25/10
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