G. I. Jane

G. I. Jane is about the young female lieutenant Jordan O'Neil, who is chosen as the guinea pig for a military project launched by Senator Lillian DeHaven. DeHaven wants the navy to treat men and women equally, so Jordan O'Neil is to undergo the selection course for the Navy SEALs, the toughest military unit of all. DeHaven finds that Jordan has the physical strength, the intelligence and also the looks that will ensure she attracts media attention. Jordan has her own reasons for accepting the offer. Her boyfriend, who also works in naval intelligence, overtook her in the career race long ago, because he is a man.

At the base, Jordan faces a hard time. Not only must she overcome almost inhuman physical ordeals. She must also fight the prejudices of the other soldiers, which are reinforced by the special treatment she receives. Jordan wants to be part of the team, so she asks to be treated on equal terms with the others. Master Chief John Urgayle takes full advantage of this. He is of the opinion that women have no place in the military whatsoever. It will hardly come as a surprise, though, that Jordan wins his respect, not least when she saves his life during an actual combat operation in Libya. Before that, Jordan has also had to fight her former patron, Lillian DeHaven, who agrees to shelve the project as part of a political horse-trade. Jordan, however, pressures DeHaven into abandoning her plan.

G. I. Jane is tremendously entertaining and effective, but it is a strange film, because on the one hand it puts a relevant and weighty question in the spotlight - should women be admitted to the military on equal terms with men - and on the other hand it apparently cannot quite make up its own mind about the issue. Jordan does succeed in her endeavour, but John Urgayle also gets to show that men cannot bear to see women suffer in combat. In one scene the film actually presents it as if it is the men's problem and not the women's, but overall it is hard to deduce a position from the film. It must be said to Scott's credit that there is not much sentimental patriotic drivel in the film. What Jordan does, she surprisingly does more to prove to the world that she is up to it than for her country.