Review of General`s Daughter, The

Introduction

Take John Travolta, best know for Grease, disappearing up his own backside over the years and reinventing himself courtesy of Tarantino in Pulp Fiction; James Woods, a great actor who just doesn`t get the parts to do his ability justice and Madeline Stowe, who starred in amongst others Stakeout and The Last of the Mohicans. Now throw in a bizarre murder where the female victim has been stripped naked, tied down with tent-pegs but not raped, and the staff of a military base seemingly in too much of a hurry to close the case and you have The General`s Daughter.

Military Investigator (Travolta) and his sidekick (Stowe) are called in to investigate the bizarre murder of the beautiful daughter of a retiring General. They smell a cover up, but can`t work out why - as the film goes on they discover a web of deceit and sex which leads them to the killer.

Video

The video is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of an excellent standard throughout. A great deal of the movie is set at night, but the picture remains detailed and stable.

This is a character based thriller/drama, and as such has no special effects, but the locations used all look very good and authentic.

Audio

Usually with this type of film, the soundstage is firmly anchored onto the centre speaker with little happening elsewhere.

The General`s Daughter really surprised me with it`s excellent use of all 5.1 channels for the whole film.

Set on a military base, there are plenty of helicopters flying around along a great deal of incidental noise and it all sounds superb. Dialog is always easy to follow during the movie despite everything else that`s going on.

I also heard the film on a Dolby Pro-Logic system and it still sounds very good, with excellent use made of the rear channels and overall soundstage.

Features

Extras include 2 trailers, 4 deleted scenes, a commentary and a behind the scenes featurette.

The DVD is packaged in an Amaray case and contains a thin single page insert detailing the 17 scenes.

Also included is a Paramount catalogue and a questionnaire.

Conclusion

I bought The General`s Daughter on the strength of the cast and what looked like a reasonably interesting plot detailed on the rear of the packaging.

I watched the film with a friend and we both enjoyed the movie. The cast all play their parts well, there`s a good amount of humour - mainly with some great lines from Travolta and the story is well told. The plot is well developed during the film, and like all good thrillers, it`s nice not to know whodunit until the end.

The movie is also well filmed and is presented on the DVD with excellent picture and sound quality and a reasonable selection of special features.