Heartbreak Ridge

Director: Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood

Overview

Having spent much of his directorial career emulating Don Siegel and John Ford, Clint Eastwood borrows a page from the catalogue of Sam Fuller in Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood casts himself as an old-fashioned Marine Corps sergeant who is out of step with the new-fashioned military. He returns to his old outfit as a gunnery sergeant, where he runs afoul of 1980s-style superior officers to whom the words "Gung Ho" are foolish anachronisms. But through his tough tutelage, Eastwood's lackadaisical platoon is whipped into a first-rate fighting machine, favoring teamwork over such New Age gobbledygook as "self-fulfillment." Eastwood's men prove their mettle during the invasion of Grenada.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/01/2010
UPC:	0883929107742
Original Release:	1986
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:10:00
Sales rank:	2,478

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Sgt. Thomas Highway
Marsha Mason	Aggie
Everett McGill	Maj. Powers
Moses Gunn	Sgt. Webster
Eileen Heckart	Little Mary
Bo Svenson	Roy Jennings
Boyd Gaines	Lt. Ring
Mario Van Peebles	Stitch
Arlen Dean Snyder	Choozoo
Vincent Irizarry	Fragetti
Tom Villard	Profile
Mike Gomez	Quinones
Rodney Hill	Collins
Peter Koch	`Swede' Johanson,"Swede" Johnson
Eilenn Heckarl	Actor
Ramón Franco	Aponte
Mario Peeples	Actor
Richard Venture	Colonel Meyers
Peter Jason	Major Devin
J.C. Quinn	Quartermaster Sgt.
Begona Plaza	Mrs. Aponte
John Eames	Judge Zane
Thom Sharp	Emcee
John Gallagher	Emcee
John Hostetter	Reese
Holly Shelton-Foy	Sarita Dwayne
Nicholas Worth	Jail Binger
Timothy Fall	Kid in Jail
Jon Pennell	Jail Crier
Trish Garland	Woman Marine Officer
George Hartmann	Bar Tough Guy
Darwyn Swalve	Bar Tough Guy
Dutch Mann	Bar Tough Guy
Christopher Michael	Marine
Alex Bello	Marine
Steve Halsey	Bus Driver
John Sasse	Bus Driver
Rebecca Perle	Student in Shower
Annie O'Donnell	Telephone Operator
Elizabeth Ruscio	Waitress
Lloyd Nelson	Deputy
John Brewer	Sergeant Major in Court
Michael Maurer	Bouncer in Bar
Lennie Niehaus	Conductor,Composer
Desmond Nakano	Composer

Technical Credits

James Carabatsos

Joseph Stinson

Dennis Hackin

Jim Carabatsos

Clint Eastwood	Director,Producer
James Carabatsos	Screenwriter
William Nelson	Sound Mixer
Fritz Manes	Executive Producer,Producer
Chuck Gaspar	Special Effects
Joseph Stinson	Screenwriter
Buddy Van Horn	Stunts,Stunts
Dennis Hackin	Screenwriter
Rick Alexander	Sound Effects
Neil Burrow	Sound Effects,Sound Effects
Teri Dorman	Sound Effects
Jay Engel	Sound Effects
Jeffrey A. Wischnack	Special Effects
Jim Carabatsos	Screenwriter
Phyllis Huffman	Casting
Vern Poore	Sound/Sound Designer
William Nelson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Clint Eastwood takes the old plot about the tough Marine drill sergeant trying to whip a bunch of new recruits into shape and manages to inject some life into it. He stars as Sgt. Tom Highway, a misanthropic misfit who has sacrificed his wife, family, friends, and everything else to his life in the Corps. Appropriately enough, he's assigned to shape up a platoon of young misfits and bad-asses from his old outfit. Somewhat bending genre conventions, Eastwood has given the film an elegiac undercurrent, as the fifty-plus warrior reviews his past screw-ups with his ex-wife. Of course, this is counterpointed by a number of scenes of heavy-duty bone-crunching as the old man shows his young troops that he's not about to retire any time soon. The heroic invasion of Grenada in the film's conclusion is something of a disappointment since the director, perhaps not surprisingly, has chosen to play it straight. Eastwood's direction is vigorous and terse, and the script by former Marine James Carabatsos is a nonstop virtuoso display of some of the most creative profanity to be heard in a motion picture. Among the cast, Marsha Mason and Mario Van Peebles do notable work.