User Reviews

I saw Taps for the first time when it came out in late 1981, and just watched it again tonight. The movie has so many technical inaccuracies I don't know where to begin in discussing them.

While the performances are great in Taps, the basic premise of the movie is wildly unrealistic. In reality, the students would have gone for the summer and the school would have sent them letters advising that it was closing, and that would have been the end of that. But that doesn't create the right environment for the plot that underpins this movie.

I can't imagine any military academy catering to boys between 12 and 18 would have stored any military hardware on its premises beyond non-functioning drill rifles and swords, and maybe one or two ancient cannons capable of firing black powder only for ceremonial purposes. If the boys had been allowed access to any weaponry and live ammunition, they would have been on a military base and closely supervised by professional soldiers.

The military forces that were assembled outside the school could have forced their way in and taken over very quickly without sustaining any casualties. An M60 machine gun won't do anything to a M60A3 tank other than annoy the crewmen inside.

As we see in the closing minutes of the movie, a burst from one tank's .50 calibre heavy machine gun did a fine job of punching through the walls of the room where Cadet Captain Shawn had set up a M60 machine gun. Indeed, even if all the students/would-be soldiers had set up defensive positions in their rooms, they would be just as vulnerable to heavy machine gun fire and thus unable to mount an effective defence.

Cutting off water and food supplies is pretty much standard procedure when dealing with holed-up people who don't want to come out, and the boys would not have lasted long without water. The few canteens we saw being filled up would not be sufficient to keep them going for more than a day, if that. By the third day, all of them would be begging for water and would have been unable to mount any kind of meaningful resistance.

If the boys had remained outside in their defensive positions all that the army would have needed to do is drop in a lot of smoke, tear gas and flash-bang grenades to cause massive disruption and confusion - enough to cause the boys, in their hungry, tired, thirsty and exhausted state to surrender or try to flee. Professional soldiers have trouble functioning without proper food, water or adequate rest, so a bunch of inexperienced boys would have collapsed even sooner.

Clearly, the army held off in hopes that they could de-escalate the situation and achieve a peaceful outcome. But this was not to be.

Where Taps succeeds is in the high quality of the acting, characterization, and in its ability to appeal to its target market: teenaged boys between 15 and 17 years old who think they are immortal and can do anything. But sadly, none of the good points can rescue a movie with such a wildly implausible and unworkable plot. Although it is entertaining, 34 years on, to see a young Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn in action.

As another reviewer pointed out, the whole story is contrived, with students at a military school having weaponry a real military school wouldn't have, the real military outside the school trying to end the situation not doing as it would have done in real life, and so forth. The idea wasn't even intended to be real-life anyway; it was meant to show how idealistic students go crazy with the idea of honor and end up confronting the outside world.

The film is most notable for its cast of then-young actors such as Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton who would go on to bigger careers later on. More of a time capsule than a realistic drama.

This was a great little dramatic character study with a few action set pieces. It was fun watching Tom Cruise in an early role as a young army cadet who gets trigger happy, and Sean Penn as the relatively normal one(!).

(Spoiler warning)

This is one of the few films in the 70s where a young kid is allowed to get mortally wounded, and it works for the dramatic impact. Perhaps the film is a bit heavy-handed in it's themes and moralizing, and probably isn't as significant as it would hope to be; but this is still quite an effective military drama.

Taps is lame in an 80's way! A group of cadets take over, by force, their military school after the commandant dies accidently by a group of town rowdies which causes the academy to close down. Just another lame 80's teen movie; what save Tap is the strong performances/character by George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, and Tom Cruise. Scott the statemen charms and mentors Hutton. Taps relationship mentor and student is a great sub story. Penn excellently portrays the conscious for Hutton, while Cruise is the all in gun ho character which pushes the bad hard. Worth watching once for the character, but a 6 star out of 10 story.

An enthralling military movie that showcased Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, along with Timothy Hutton on their rise to stardom and superstardom (in the case of Tom Cruise).

The ending was quite tragic and I think The Simpsons did a parody of this scene.

In New Zealand the movie was pronounced "Tups" and in South Africa it was pronounced "Teps".

Even through I didn't watch this... 30 years after it debuted in theaters worldwide in 1981-82 it's still truly the military film that welcomed us into the Reagan years in the US. It was adapted from the novel Father Sky written in 1979.. but adapted for the early 80s, tackling the state of US Military academies and the people who are a great part of them. In this film... it's not about the major US military academies but the minor ones that are being given their own moment.

In this case, Bunker Hill Military Academy. (The film through was filmed in historic Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania, near the famous fields where Washington and his men took camp for the winter in 1777.) The academy, similar to the Surovov Military Schools in Russia and Belarus as a junior military college, trains middle and high school level boys academics, character and leadership skills preparing them to become part of the US Army soon as officers in the USMA in West Point, and is led by the great George Scott, a retired US Army general officer, as its Commandant. (He's to me my Gen. Patton, Ol' Blood and Guts....)

That movie reminds me of the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War... (the academy got its name from this great battle)

At the academy's graduation parade Scott shocked everyone with his announcement: by the next year, as decided by the school board the academy will be closed and the land where it is located prime real estate. No one is more surprised of this than the next year's cadet commander, Timothy Hutton, by now a Cadet Major (Scott had promoted him the night before), leader of next year's seniors and the corps of cadets (the last in its history) and mentored by the veteran commandant. He's well loved by the cadets here and is truly their leader, especially by the cadet officers under him. Also surprised by this bad news are his two fellow cadet officers and best friends, CDT CPT Tom Cruise, a elite cadet company commander (thus the red beret on his uniform) and CDT CPT Sean Penn of the cadet cavalry troop and also the executive officer of the corps. The other cadet officers, Giancarlo Esposito and Evan Handler, cadets Daniel Kimmel, John P. Narvin Jr., Brendan Ward, and others were also dismayed but as always had hope in Hutton to do something about it at once. They share the same feeling with the Commandant... that when they're still around it will not close down and continue its mandate.

At the academy prom that same night a group of town teens came to disturb the occasion outside. When two of the COs suddenly approached them then angrily followed by the other cadets, a fight broke out and suddenly Scott came out to intervene when one of the teens stole his pistol and when he had it back, it shot one of the teens by accident, killing the teen. And after being arrested, he later had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.

The result: the school board decided it would push on with the closure in a month or two. That made everyone shocked and soon the school would be a virtual fortress and its cadets, led by Hutton, Cruise and Penn... soldiers on a mission to save this piece of history for good, all at the cost of their lives.

While on the go for supplies the truck that CDT CPT Esposito drives with some of the cadets (Hutton was left behind and had told to the dean and others in the armory about his future plans to prevent the school's closure) is stalled and is attacked by the same teens that disturbed the prom but later comes back thanks to Cruise's efforts. Upon returning their weapons and positions are prepared and soon... it's in a state of siege. Soon the police surround the grounds, then the parents come in to ask their boys to give in, among them Wayne Tippit, the Army Master Sergeant who is also Tim's dad (In one occasion he tells Hutton that what they are doing is the "wrong execution of the right idea"), and soon... the Army National Guard unit led by Ronny Cox, a ANG Colonel who wants the cadets out. Soon he informs them of the commandant's demise and the cadets pay tribute to him at once but later.... things are gonna turn bad.

The film follows the rest of their actions very well. It's a well depicted and beautiful film made. It's truly the best military academy film made after over 30 years. Of course who would forget this would be Tim's first after his Oscars achievement, Tom's film no. 2 and Sean's debut performance? And also the late George Scott did well here too as the academy commandant. It's very good and it motivates me a lot.

Oh and the final scenes... when Cruise is found by Tim and Sean firing a machine gun at the Army National Guardsmen shouting "It's beautiful, man! BEAUTIFUL!" and is later shot dead with his best pal... it's tragic and shocking. One of the film's best moments. As a future US Navy NROTC student I'll gonna love it and I truly recommend watching this.

3 decades after, the memory of the cadets killed in the fight for Bunker Hill Military Academy will still be remembered, forever. They died for a good cause... and the film illustrates this in a great way.

Eternal glory be to all of them who died just like every soldier, doing the ultimate sacrifice for the defense of our freedom. I always think of them everyday. Always.