Harold Becker directed this interesting film that stars George C. Scott as General Harlan Bache, head of the Bunker Hill Military Academy who is proud of its tradition, but is dismayed by the times he lives in, and when the board of trustees votes to shut the Academy down for the redevelopment of Condos, he and the cadets(led by Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise, and Sean Penn) are dismayed. After a civilian is accidentally shot by the General, and he suffers a stroke himself, the cadets decide to seize control of the Academy by force, stopping the bulldozers coming in, but the situation quickly becomes more complicated than they had anticipated... Fine character study with solid direction and performances; well worth a look.

It's the end of the year at Bunker Hill Military Academy but for the young cadets, it's a matter of honor when they learn that their school is going to be demolished by next summer to make way for new condos to be built. The beloved general Bache is not pleased with the closing of the school and vows to do whatever he can to prevent it from happening. However, an unfortunate incident complicates everything and the old man soon ends up in a hospital leaving the boys alone to defend the school by barricading and arming themselves until the authorities answer their demands. The cadets experience a war of their own creation while they fight their adult counterparts to keep Bunker Hill's legacy despite being minors between the ages of 12 and 17. The plot is outstanding and the acting is excellent especially by a teenage Tom Cruise as the rebellious David Shawn who fights like a real soldier. I give TAPS 10 stars.

This was Sean Penn's first feature film and Tom Cruise's second feature film, so it is memorable for introducing such well known stars to the screen when they were young men. But the film is totally dominated by a magnificent bravura performance by Timothy Hutton, of astonishing power and conviction. The film is set in a boys' military academy called Bunker Hill Academy, in America. For people not familiar with such institutions, or indeed for all people unfamiliar with America, it is common for boys' boarding schools to be 'military academies', the very idea of such a thing being of course unknown in Britain. And by military they mean military, that is, the boys really wear uniforms all the time, drill like soldiers, and are subjected to military discipline. Many fathers think this 'makes a man of' their sons. What it can do, however, is scar them for life. (This happened in the late 19th century in Bohemia to the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, for instance.) Some boys thrive on this kind of thing, go into the Army eventually as a career, and are happy as clams. To each his own! Here we see a military academy to beat all military academies, one which is so military it surpasses the real Army itself. At the beginning of the film it is run by a headmaster who is a spell-binding patriarch who dazzles the cadets with his oratory, a retired general played by George C. Scott. Hutton plays a cadet who hero-worships him. It is the end of the school year, and Hutton has just been appointed Cadet Major (equivalent to Head Prefect) for the following year. That means he will be the commanding officer of the students, answerable only to the General. He has been told so often about the importance of loyalty and honour that when an unexpected event occurs, he duly does what he has been trained to do, he … well, that's just the problem … At Commencement Day, in the presence of all the parents, following the parade and file-past with elaborate salutes to the General (the boy officers even hold swords to their noses as they do 'eyes right', it is all far more elaborate than any drill I ever did, and I was a cadet officer in a non-military school when young and did that kind of thing, but not with real rifles and a sword up my nostrils like we see here), the General announces that the trustees of the Academy have decided to close the school and sell off the land to commercial developers. This shocks all the boys, who begin to think they should defend their 'country', i.e. their academy, like real soldiers. There is a conflict between 'town and gown' and the townies attack some of the cadets (although the word is not used in this film, such cadets are commonly known as 'bellhops' by boys in non-military boarding schools). In the melée, the General's pistol goes off accidentally and kills a boy from the town. He is then taken away by the police, leaving the closing school rudderless, as many of the teachers and more than half of the students leave for the summer. Some, however stay for 'the summer session', among them being Timothy Hutton who is now de facto in charge of the Academy, and Sean Penn and Tom Cruise leading figures amongst the other cadets. Some of the boys are only 11 or 12 years old, but most are between 16 and 18. They decide they are not going to let the developers get away with it, and so they follow all their military training and set up a defence of the school. Because the General had been more than a little gun-happy, he had stocked the school with huge quantities of guns and real ammunition. These are duly distributed amongst the cadets and they set up defensive positions, sandbags, barriers, and sentries patrolling the walls which surround the school. This erupts into violence and gunfire and becomes 'the real thing'. The cadets keep saying that honour dictates that they must defend their principles. They do a raid on the town in a truck which they stock with food, and they hunker down to await the life and death shootout. They are all prepared to die for their school. Of course, one can sympathise with their hatred of the commercial developers who want to destroy their school and all that they believe in just for the sake of money. Hating them is one thing, but shooting them is another. With no one in charge but the idealistic Hutton, the borderline between fantasy and reality collapses. The real Army comes and lays siege to the school, bringing in tanks. When a 12 year-old cadet is shot and killed by one of the real soldiers, half the cadets desert because they are terrified, but the rest remain, prepared to die for their beliefs. This film is a study of honour, but it shows that even honour, when carried to extremes which have lost touch with reality, can become dishonour without the people who believe in it even realizing it. The film is thus an extraordinarily thoughtful study of a noble principle carried to such extremes that young kids end up dying for their beliefs, because the grown-ups will not listen to them. The ending cannot be revealed, but to say that things become hyper-tense is an understatement. This is a knockout of a film, and it would make anyone, even the dullest person, think. And as we all know, thinking is the thing that most people try to avoid doing if at all possible. So if a film can make people think, then it does deserve all the support and admiration we can give it. This film is a masterpiece of serious examination of matters of conscience, and is extremely exciting and well made.

Taps is about the cadets of Bunker Hill Military Academy and their commanding officer, George C. Scott, and their reaction to the news of the closing of the Academy.Scott announces at the graduation that the next year will be the final year of Bunker Hill. The Board of Trustees is selling off the place for its prime real estate value to be used for condominium development. Certainly an occurrence we've seen all over the country in many places and not something really desirable in many.Cadet Major Timothy Hutton knows he will head the last graduating class at Bunker Hill. He and fellow cadets like Sean Penn and Tom Cruise aren't taking it lying down. They may be military cadets, but they've seen and grown up with student protests. Only these students have weapons and are trained in their use. Can you really blame the cadets like Hutton who've actually in fact forgotten that soldiers carry out and don't make policy? I think it was significant that during the course of Taps it's mentioned that George C. Scott served with General Douglas MacArthur who gave him a sword for his service. It's also mentioned that Scott was passed over for promotion an advancement beyond being a brigadier general and was retired comfortably out to pasture at the Academy.Scott's not the same kind of military man you see in Patton. Rather he's a lot like the Patton you see in that television film, Patton, the Last Days. A man so totally out of his element that when the accident and broken neck occurred he'd lost his will to live.Anyway after a scuffle with some of the town louts who are less than enamored of Bunker Hill's military tradition. A town kid is accidentally killed when he tries to get Scott's military issue pistol and it discharges. In a court of law, the man would have been acquitted, but Scott answers to a higher law he lives by. That scuffle threatens to close the school even for the last year and the kids seize it. It's a confrontation then between idealistic and wrongheaded youth and the real forces of law enforcement.Ronny Cox contributes a very nice performance as the commanding general of the National Guard trying to keep a lid on the situation. His scenes with the idealistic and obstinate Hutton are the highlight of the film for me.Tom Cruise and Sean Penn got their first real notice in this film right at the start of their respective mega-careers. Hutton has a nice followup to his Oscar winning performance from Ordinary People. And George C. Scott is, George C. Scott.