Heartbreak Ridge

This movie can be best described as a Clint Eastwood vehicle. The story exploits Eastwood's legacy of a tough guy persona and puts that persona through the ringer of a sentimental comedy. The sentimental element of Heartbreak Ridge is hokey, but the comedy is authentic. True marine humor is the funniest humor I've ever heard. Most marine movies try to have it but fail. They never are crude or imaginative enough. Heartbreak Ridge is the real deal for excellent marine one liners and a beautiful thing because of it. The fact this film would offend 70% of audiences today is its credibility. A movie of this authority is rare and remiscient of the days when Hollywood yearned for authentic cowboys to write dialogue for Westerns instead of yuppy scriptwriters who had just seen a lot of Westerns and considered themselves the authorial voice. The marriage of the fine dialogue to a great tough guy persona like Eastwood's makes for a charming and good comedy. Of course charming is a funny word for me to say considering the degree of offensive humor in the flick, but Eastwood really does come off as very likeable.