The General's Daughter

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The General's Daughter
The General's Daughter Film poster
Directed by	Simon West
Produced by	Mace Neufeld
Written by	Christopher Bertolini, William Goldman, Nelson DeMille
Starring	John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton, James Woods, Leslie Stefanson
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	18 June 1999 (US Theatres) 14 December 1999 (DVD)
Running time	116 minutes
Language	English
Budget	US$60,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

The General's Daughter is a 1999 film starring John Travolta. The plot concerns the mysterious death of the daughter of a prominent general. The movie is based on the novel by the same name written in 1992 by Nelson DeMille, and was directed by Simon West.

[edit] Plot

Warrant Officer Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is in Georgia masquerading as First Sergeant Frank White at a local army base, to broker an illegal arms trade with a self-proclaimed freedom fighter. While on the base, his car gets a flat tire. Without a lug wrench, a pretty young officer arrives and helps him change the spare.

Brenner learns that the officer is Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), the base commanding general's daughter and army captain in psychological operations. Later that evening, she is found murdered. Brenner and another warrant officer, Sara Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) are brought in to investigate, as both are part of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. They find Captain Campbell's body staked down with tent poles, strangled, and presumably raped.

When they arrive at General Joseph Campbell's (James Cromwell)'s home for debriefing, they are perplexed when Campbell's chief of staff, Colonel George Fowler (Clarence Williams III) asks Brenner to notify him first before arresting anyone. They search Elisabeth's home off base and find her surroundings typical of a career Army officer, with one exception: through a false door in the basement, they find what appears to be a sexual dungeon of sorts, with handcuffs, harnesses, and multiple sexual aids, including a camera connected to a VCR. Sunhill goes to their car to make a call from her cell phone, and while Brenner gathers the tapes, he is attacked by a masked figure armed with a steel snow shovel. The culprit manages to disorient Brenner long enough to steal the videotapes.

Brenner then questions Elisabeth's close confidante, Colonel Robert Moore (James Woods), who also works in psy ops. Though cordial and somewhat cooperative, Moore is evasive when questioned, and gives an alibi of being in bed asleep at the time of the murder. However, this proves false when Moore's fingerprints are found on Elisabeth's dog tags that were found in her duffel bag several yards from her body, along with her clothing.

With this find, Brenner arrives at Moore's home, where he then arrests him on charges of conduct unbecoming of an officer after Moore refuses to give up more information on Elisabeth. He then hauls him off to a lockup on base where he tries to strongarm him into a confession, but without success. However, Moore is later released by the officer in charge of the jail and restricted to house arrest.

Brenner returns to Moore's home and finds loud opera music blaring from inside. He beats on the door and window but receives no response. He then breaks down the door after Moore's cat, with blood-covered paws, arrives at the window. Brenner, Sunhill, and base provost marshal William Kent (Timothy Hutton) venture inside and find Moore dead on his couch with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his forehead.

Fowler attempts to close the investigation at the crime scene, stating that Moore killed himself out of guilt because he killed Elisabeth. However, Brenner isn't convinced, stating he intends to keep the case open. They threaten each other's careers with their knowledge, but back off.

Further cover-ups are revealed, and it's later learned that Elisabeth was sexually promiscuous with virtually all the officers that made up her father's staff. It's also revealed that Elisabeth was an honor student at West Point until her sophomore year, and barely managed to graduate. Both Brenner and Sunhill visit Dr. Donald Slesinger, the academy's psychiatrist with a kind-but-firm demeanor, after receiving medical records from Captain Goodson, Moore's lawyer (and presumed homosexual lover). Slesinger refuses to discuss the case until the agents tell him of Elisabeth's death, which visibly upsets him greatly.

Through Slesinger's spoken accounts and his records, it's revealed that Captain Campbell had been gang raped by fellow trainees during a training exercise while a cadet at West Point. She was separated from her group and was raped many times, and Elisabeth did not know the names of her assailants but one, who later gives up the information after being confronted by Sunhill in a locker room.

The agents then pay a visit to the general, who corroborates the story. Fearing that the assailants would never be caught, General Campbell acts upon the advice of another general and decides to cover up the incident, as such a scandal could destroy the academy. While Elisabeth is recovering in a hospital, the General forces his daughter to cooperate by persuading her to forget that it happened. This denial of justice psychologically damages Elisabeth, causing her to partake in various violent sexual activities which culminated in an act of defiance that finally goes too far.

Realizing that Colonel Kent is the only suspect left, Brenner decides to question him. He calls Sunhill but learns that she was returning to the murder scene...with Kent, who also wants to see Brenner. Brenner arrives and confronts Kent, who admits his role in the killing by the following accounts:

Colonel Kent happened upon Captain Campbell after her father had left her naked and tied to tent stakes (in a reenactment of the rape with assistance from Colonel Moore, and designed to elicit a response from the General). Kent, who has a sexual history with Elisabeth, strangles her after his advances are spurned. Kent also reveals to Brenner and Sunhill that he buried some antipersonnel landmines near them (known as "Bouncing Betties"). He trips the wire to one, and walks into its path, killing himself. Brenner and Sunhill throw themselves to the ground, managing to escape unharmed.

Parallel to these events, Brenner and Sunhill manage to invalidate General Campbell's reasons for the cover up by swiftly bringing his daughter's assailants to justice. The film ends with the General finally being brought to justice for the original cover-up and misconduct concerning his daughter's murder.