The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 5, 2025

Simon West's "The General's Daughter" (1999) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary by the director; archival featurette; deleted scenes; and vintage trailers. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

First, I want you to know that you have my full cooperation, and the cooperation of everyone on this base. You understand the time element?

When the final credits of The General’s Daughter appear, a select few may be misled to conclude that what is depicted in it is a true story. The story is not true, it is entirely manufactured. Also, it has nothing to do with any truths about the U.S. Army, which is why the U.S. Army flat-out refused to be, in any way, associated with The General’s Daughter.

When a female captain (Leslie Stefanson) is brutally raped and murdered at Fort MacCallum -- a fictitious military compound strategically positioned in the deep South -- CID investigators Paul Brenner (John Travolta) and Sara Sunhill (Madeline Stowe) begin working on the case under tremendous pressure. The victim is the daughter of General "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell), a highly decorated hero, who many believe will soon officially accept to become a Vice-Presidential candidate. To protect Campbell’s reputation, Brenner and Sunhill are asked by his assistant, Colonel Fowler (Clarence Williams III), to rush and gather enough information for a proper narrative explaining the tragedy before the FBI becomes involved with it and the media begin covering it. Determined to get the whole story, not assemble the safest narrative for Campbell, Brenner and Sunhill immediately start digging in the victim’s past. They quickly discover she was a chameleon leading a double life and learn about a complicated relationship with Colonel Moore (James Woods). When they confront Moore, he exposes an even darker area of the victim’s past and commits suicide. Soon after, more men in uniforms begin adding to a much bigger, much more disturbing story about the victim and a different rape case that has permanently scarred multiple people.

Despite pretending to be one, The General’s Daughter is not a multilayered whodunit. After the CID investigators go to work, it takes approximately ten minutes to figure out the exact placement of the victim in the puzzle they will be solving and the messaging to be channeled through it. The emergence of the distracting curveballs, like the past romance between the CID investigators, is entirely predictable, too.

However, there are a few genuine surprises. The biggest surprise is that so many great actors are completely wasted playing very badly crafted characters who utter astonishingly poor lines, many of which are, of course, carrying the message. (“You have no rights in the Army”. Do you get it now?) Simply put, their talent becomes irrelevant because they are forced to become caricatures in a grand circus incompatible with reality, military and civilian. On top of this, the grand circus has a special appreciation for the worst kind of sleaze, which is the one that quickly becomes unbearably tasteless but gets passed on as adult drama. (The victim’s entire character arc and all developments associated with it sum up perfectly what is wrong with the work of the current crop of screenwriters whose screenplays Hollywood turns into films).

The politically correct statement about women in the U.S. Army was unavoidable. The General’s Daughter needs it to place everything that happens in it in what it assumes is a proper context. It is always how terrible, manipulative films like it justify their existence.

The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of The General's Daughter is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray disc and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-29 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #32-40 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

In native 4K, the film can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I chose to view it with Dolby Vision. Later, I spent time with the 1080p presentation of it on the Blu-ray.

The only area of the native 4K presentation where I felt that the visuals looked a bit loose, possibly even a tad flat, was in the very beginning of the film, right after its title appeared. However, in native 4K and 1080p, this area just does not look quite as pleasing as the rest of the film. While some encoding optimizations could have been introduced, it is pretty easy to tell that the wider panoramic footage, in particular, does not have an impressive native sharpness. When the camera moves, the visuals do not look smooth either, so fluidity is not great here. The rest of the film looks either very good or excellent. A lot of the rich, darker footage is particularly impressive when various types of shades and light begin interacting. However, while I like how some of this footage looks with Dolby Vision, I tend to prefer how the darkest footage looks without it. Generally speaking, color reproduction and balance are excellent. In 1080p on the Blu-ray, the primaries and supporting remain equally convincing. To be honest, despite the wider color gamut of the native 4K presentation, I think that the 1080p presentation matches its strength pretty well. I did not encounter any traces of digital anomalies. Image stability is excellent. The surface of the visuals is very healthy as well.

The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The 5.1 track has all the strengths you would expect the soundtrack of a very recent film to produce. During explosions, its dynamic intensity is excellent. Elsewhere, it produces many nuanced contrasts and meaningful surround movement. Clarity, sharpness, and stability are great, too. My guess is that the 5.1 is a digital replica of the original soundtrack. While viewing the film in native 4K, I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Simon West. The bulk of the information that is shared in the commentary addresses the conception of The General's Daughter and the locations that were chosen for it in the Savannah, Georgia area (some footage was also shot in Los Angeles); the evolution of the screenplay and details that were altered; the characters, characters arcs, and casting choices; and the nature of the drama that is chronicled in the film.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Simon West. The bulk of the information that is shared in the commentary addresses the conception of The General's Daughter and the locations that were chosen for it in the Savannah, Georgia area (some footage was also shot in Los Angeles); the evolution of the screenplay and details that were altered; the characters, characters arcs, and casting choices; and the nature of the drama that is chronicled in the film.

• Featurette - presented here is an archival behind the scenes featurette with clips from cast and crew interviews and raw footage from the shooting of the film. In English, not subtitled. (20 min).

• Deleted Scenes - presented here are several deleted scenes, including a very odd romantic alternate ending. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Teaser - presented here is a vintage teaser trailer for The General's Daughter. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage theatrical trailer for The General's Daughter. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

The General's Daughter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is sad to see so many talented actors wasted in an awful project like The General's Daughter. There isn't a single character in it that looks even remotely authentic, giving the audience a reason to stay with it and care about something. It is not a whodunit. More than two-thirds of it looks like badly staged theater conceived in a foreign country whose primary objective is to smear the U.S. Army. It is hard to believe that Simon West directed it.