1982 An Officer and a Gentleman

Another huge genre in the 80's was romantic dramas, and the military was used a lot to show a man being a man, think Top Gun or No Way Out. Women fell at the feet of men in uniform, it was just like America's answer to the British spy James Bond, only you could be any serving officer in any service.

Richard Gere played the naval officer who made every woman swoon as soon as he put on his whites and has benefited every fancy dress shop ever since. His love interest was Debra Winger, herself an actor of acclaim having appeared in many dramas. This was one movie the two of them found it hard to distance from.

The story is one you would often hear during this decade. Down and out beaten boy finds a father figure in the services and gets the girl by being a hero, again, the plot is Top Gun, but this movie came first. It became a tried and tested formula.

The movie was a huge hit, taking in $129m at the US box office. Lou Gossett Jr won an Oscar for his performance as Sgt. Foley, a role which required him to shout and say nasty things. It started a craze for employing character actors in roles where they could shout a lot at the pretty young lad who had to overcome their fears, learning something about each other along the way. Having said that, his win was the first by an African American actor.

The 80's were all machismo, and this was it's starting point. You could say the subplot of the romance with Debra Winger is almost redundant. It's producer was Don Simpson, who would raise the ante which each new release and it had that other 80's staple, a hit song, Up Where We Belong.

The link below for the soundtrack is a US import only; any US supporters of my shop should be able to get this cheaper.