The General's Daughter - The General´s Daughter

Drama, Mystery, Thriller

John Travolta	Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, C.I.D./1st Sergeant Frank White
Madeleine Stowe	Warrant Officer Sara Sunhill
James Cromwell	Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell
Timothy Hutton	Colonel William Kent
Leslie Stefanson	Captain Elisabeth Campbell
Daniel Von Bargen	Chief Yardley
Clarence Williams III	Colonel George Fowler
James Woods	Colonel Robert Moore
Peter Weireter	Belling
Mark Boone Junior	Dalbert Elkins
Boyd Kestner
John Frankenheimer
Mark Ivie
Clarence Williams

Director	Simon West
Producer	Mace Neufeld; Christopher Bertolini; Anson Downes; Linda Favila
Writer	Nelson DeMille; Christopher Bertolini

When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker drawl, one briefly hopes the movie will turn out to be just as hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy, run-of-the-mill potboiler, too mediocre to be truly hysterical fun. A female officer is discovered strangled and tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that, screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and Misery) left his name attached to this script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. It was directed with a lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com