Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The General's Daughter Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 17, 2021

Simon West of Con Air fame directs the hackneyed The General's Daughter, a classic paint-by-numbers murder mystery offering little incentive to watch, let alone remember. The film cannot overcome excess length, a sluggish pace, and a terribly trite premise. The film seems to posit that a military base setting, kinky sex, and a sprinkling of violence will be enough to hold it together, but alas these elements are simply details within a larger picture that is as uninteresting as it is unoriginal. Perhaps the story worked better as a novel; the film is based on Nelson DeMille's book of the same name, but as it plays on the screen it lacks energy and a sense of purpose.

Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is an undercover army investigator who is breaking up illegal weapons deals at a military base in Georgia. The base's commanding officer, Lieutenant General Joe Campbell (James Cromwell), is slated to run as a vice presidential candidate. His daughter Elisabeth (Leslie Stefanson) serves in PsyOps (Psychological Operations) and one morning turns up dead on base. Brenner takes up the investigation and finds himself working with an old acquaintance, Chief Warrant Officer Sarah Sunhill (Madeline Stowe). As they dig into the murder, they turn up innumerable suspects and a seedy secret that could have far-reaching implications.

The General's Daughter languishes in the unenviable position between good and bad. Here's a standard fare procedural that attempts to differentiate itself with a little more narrative bite that, in the end, only comes across as contrived. The psychological overtones which are meant to add spice and depth only seem to push the material further down towards heavy-handed disinterest. The film digs deep into its victim's sexual proclivities and the larger male dominant world around her. As such, the film parades a number of likely, and unlikely, suspects onto the screen almost like a revolving door lineup. Sharp audiences will figure out many of the details well before the lead characters, a pair of investigators with their own past to work through, can piece together the truth. This is an exercise with little redeeming value.

The film does employ an A-list cast. Travolta and Stowe share a decent on-screen chemistry, though their past connections offer the audience little incentive to care about much of it, whether it's ancillary to the story or directly influencing it. The important thing is that they pair well in the nuts and bolts investigative scenes, playing off of one another's strengths as they work the scene and the work over suspects. The characters themselves are of little depth and development along the way, but Travolta and Stowe deliver the dialogue sharply and surely and play these characters with enough conviction to elevate the movie, if only a little. A few screen stalwarts play vital secondary roles, including James Cromwell and James Woods, both acting better than the parts deserve.

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

"Middling" best describes Paramount's 1080p Blu-ray presentation of The General's Daughter. It's a picture stuck in limbo between solid and unspectacular, though its positives generally outweigh the negatives. Most obvious is the image's propensity to flounder at the bottom of "good." The picture holds steady to a basic film-like presentation, delivering oftentimes agreeable detail to faces, clothes, and environments, all under the auspices of a decently rendered natural grain structure. The image has that desirable film-like look to it, but it lacks polish and finesse. It certainly looks a bit aged but not so deteriorated as to appear all that worse for wear. That said, the picture does reveal a fairly steady, if not generally light, barrage of hairs and fibers, spots and speckles, which do betray the age and a source that is not without blemish. Colors favor a warm appearance. The picture takes place in the hot, sticky, and sweaty South and the warmer tones add to the film's general sense of unease. There's never a sense of deep, commanding, vivid color output. Tones are fairly flat and dull but there's enough core depth to satisfy essential requirements. Black levels are nothing special and neither are flesh tones. This is a perfectly watchable presentation but it's also clear that Paramount made use of an old master that has its basics in order but struggles around the edges.

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

Paramount brings The General's Daughter to Blu-ray with a lackluster Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is hardly revelatory or even all that adept in delivering much more than an essential sound structure. The audio cues are limp and lazy, lacking much beyond essential sound elements. The track does offer some nice atmosphere -- gently rolling water outside a boat during an interrogation scene at the 66-minute mark, little office space odds and ends in other scenes -- but there is, overall, a general lack of finesse at work. Music plays with decent front end spacing and clarity but even such a core component cannot muster up much life. Gunfire is lacking. There is almost no report of any kind when a gun is fired at the 15-minute mark. Granted it has a sound suppressor on it, but still, it's almost as if the effect is totally silent; it's enough of a sonic gap to draw the listener out of the scene. That's the basic story here: no life, no zip, no punch, no depth. It's a flat trajectory soundtrack with little to offer beyond basic audio cue reproductions and generally well versed dialogue that plays from a natural front center position.

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

This Blu-ray release of The General's Daughter includes several extras, including an audio commentary track, a featurette, trailers, and deleted scenes. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• The General's Daughter Behind the Secrets (480i, 19:46): A basic overview piece that looks at story basics, shooting in the South, cast and characters, filmmaking logistics, the differences between civilian and military investigations, females in the military, making some of the more demanding scenes, and a number of other story and technical tidbits.
• The General's Daughter Theatrical Trailer (480i, 2:31).
• The General's Daughter Teaser Trailer (480i, 1:09).
• 4 Deleted Scenes Including Alternate Ending (480i, 10:02 total runtime): Scenes are presented with no identifying titles.
• Audio Commentary: Director Simon West explores the film in detail, breaking down characters, scenes, story, and more. It is clear Simon is reading from a pre-prepared script rather than delivering his comments off the cuff.

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

The problem with a movie like The General's Daughter is that the film demands its audience take a vested interest in the characters. Here, for as well as they may be performed, there's little sense of attachment to them, little reason to care about past connections, present circumstances, or future consequences. It's a tepid film, well versed in the basic technical details but failing to take hold of its audience and bring purpose to its straightforward narrative yield. Paramount's Blu-ray is rather generic, offering passable but underwhelming video, audio, and supplemental presentations. Rent it.