History Film / TheGeneralsDaughter

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the novel, General Campbell [[spoiler: Accepts responsibility for ruining his daughter's life and contributing to her death and resigns on his own accord, rather than trying to cover it up to the bitter end and having Brenner expose him]]. The film also omits [[PetTheDog his acceptance of his gay son]], although that may have been because it would have been a bigger deal in 1992 than in 1999.

The investigators soon find out that they have multiple suspects. Campbell was having affairs with most officers on base. The rape, and the identity of the rapist no longer seems clear. She [[BondageIsBad was into BDSM and maintained her own sexual dungeon]]. But looking into their murder victim's background, they discover another mystery.

Elisabeth used to be a honor student at West Point and considered a prodigy. Then in her sophomore year, her grades slipped. She had barely graduated and seemed to be a much different person after graduation. The big reveal of the film was the reason for it.

This film marked the international debut of the 1999 enhanced version of the Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures logo. In North America it debuted on ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', but the Paramount logo was not seen on international prints of that film as Creator/WarnerBros held the international rights.

** Brenner and Sunhill managing to solve [[spoiler:the West Point rape]].
** Lieutenant Elby never attacks Brenner in the book. He also never slept with Elisabeth. He was just someone the general tried to setup his daughter with, but after she died, he ends up being [[ReassignedToAntarctica posted to Guam]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the novel General Campbell [[spoiler: Accepts responsibility for ruining his daughter's life and contributing to her death and resigns on his own accord, rather than trying to cover it up to the bitter end and having Brenner expose him]]. The film also omits [[PetTheDog his acceptance of his gay son]], although that may have been because it would have been a bigger deal in 1992 than in 1999.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:One of the General's reasons for the cover up is that they likely would never be able to bring his daughter's assailants to justice, but the detectives are able to bust them all in a few days despite the trail being years old. However, the reasons why Brenner and Sunhill were able to identify the culprits so quickly were all a result of the time lapse. Campbell's former academy psychologist only revealed the name of one of the culprits after he was distraught by being informed of Campbell's death, and the methods used to get that guy to confess and identify the other perpetrators relied on forensic technology having sufficiently developed in the intervening years to make the threat credible. It's open to speculation how successful the investigation would have been if it were carried out immediately after the fact, and if the military would be willing to break medical ethics in regard to the severity of the crime; in the book, Brenner is confident the case would have been solved promptly had it been pursued, as such an elaborate conspiracy cannot be protected from the scrutiny of a real investigation]]. But then again, the point was [[spoiler:the military, General Campbell included, decided that their image of integrity was more important than actually ''having'' integrity. By covering up Elisabeth's rape, they preserved West Point's image, and General Campbell even got a promotion out of it. All it cost them was Elisabeth]].
* ArmiesAreEvil: Not exactly, since while this film portrays some of the worse parts of the service, it also shows most of the soldiers themselves are normal, hardworking men and women and that it's just a few bad apples who end up doing all the damage... [[spoiler:save that the key plot element is that the crimes of those "bad apples" are often covered up instead of prosecuted rather than suffer a scandal. In a flashback, after Elisabeth's gangrape by a group of fellow soldiers back at the academy, the pair of (male) soldiers who find her are both completely horrified. However, high command orders ''everyone'' to shut up -- and the fact that everyone ''does'' keep their mouths shut for ''years'' is why Elisabeth goes stark staring mad, knowing that so many of her "comrades" ''including her father'' would conceal such a crime if they were JustFollowingOrders to do so]].

* CallBack: "When this whole thing began I told you that we would find the son of a bitch, Sir. I didn't expect [[spoiler:that the son of a bitch would be you]]."

** The entire reason for Campbell's undermining of her father's position by [[spoiler:seducing most of his staff, as revenge for the cover-up of her rape at West Point]].

* DaddysGirl: Subverted. We're initially led to believe that Campbell was an archetypal father's daughter military brat who emulated his choosing a career in the army, but as Brenner and Sunhill discover, they viciously hated each other and evolved into mortal enemies because of [[spoiler:him helping cover up her rape at West Point in exchange for a promotion]].

* DrivingQuestion: Beyond the {{Whodunnit}} of Elisabeth Campbell's rape and murder, Colonel Moore expresses the real driving question of the mystery ("What's [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil worse than rape]]?") and states that Brenner will truly understand Elisabeth's death once he's discovered the answer. [[spoiler:It's [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil personal betrayal]]]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Colonel Kent commits suicide via bouncing betty mine when it is discovered that he killed Elisabeth.
* EroticAsphyxiation: Elisabeth got up to all kinds of kinky stuff, this included. [[spoiler:There are elements of this in her rape and (consequently) murder, as well, as the perpetrators tied a noose around her neck during the assault, and her cause of death was strangulation]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: General Campbell is a scumbag who profited off his daughter's rape as a means of career advancement, (irreparably damaging her psyche and causing the issues that would later lead to her death) but he's aghast when Colonel Fowler admits to Brenner and Sunhill that he covered up the crime because he believed the general had killed his own daughter]].

'''Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, C.I.D.:''' Two problems there. First the obvious: there are no good ones. Second, you're not a civilian, Colonel, you're in the army. You have no rights to an attorney. You have no right to remain silent. And if you don't cooperate I may have to put you in jail and that would make me feel really bad.

** While Brenner and Sunhill are looking through Elisabeth's belongings after her death, they see old news photographs of General Campbell holding his daughter in his arms while visiting a recently pacified warzone to prove to the press that the area under his command is now safe. Sunhill notes that the little girl looks terrified. [[spoiler:This foreshadows that Campbell is not above using his daughter to advance his own career, ultimately denying her justice by covering up her rape at West Point for his own advancement in the chain of command]].
** Brenner tells Sunhill early on in the film that motives for murder include "profit, revenge, jealousy, to conceal a crime, to avoid humiliation and disgrace, or plain old homicidal mania." [[spoiler: Kent murders Elisabeth out of homicidal mania because she told him he meant nothing to her/jealousy that she was sleeping with other men, and then killed Moore to conceal his crime. Elisabeth did what she did to get revenge on her father, the general, and Colonel Fowler, his aide, helped General Campbell to cover up his involvement so that the general could avoid disgrace. Literally ''everyone's'' motives are covered by this line]].
* TheGeneralsDaughter: ''Not'' a straight example, despite the title - Elisabeth tries to invoke this trope in order to discredit her father, rather than any of the men under his command.
* HateSink: General Joseph Campbell is responsible for his daughter's downward spiral, and ultimately her death. He is shown to care more about his ambitions than justice for his daughter Elisabeth -- [[spoiler:as well as West Point's image of integrity over its actual integrity. Years prior, Elisabeth was gang-rapped by a group of soldiers, and Campbell agreed to help cover it up in exchange for a promotion. When Elisabeth tried to recreate her rape to get him to redeem himself, he refuses and abandons her. As this is exposed, he tries to maintain the cover up to the bitter end. When Campbell is court-martialed in disgrace, Warrant officer Brenner cites that it was his betrayal that broke Elisabeth worse than her rape.]]
* LyingToThePerp: When questioning a suspect [[spoiler:of the gang-rape, Sunhill pulls out a pair of women's underwear in an evidence bag and leads him to believe that they're Captain Campbell's DNA-evidence-filled underwear from the night of the assault. He promptly starts talking about how he tried to stop the rape, and reveals the identities of the other men involved]].
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Kent fell in love with Elisabeth after she slept with him repeatedly, explaining that he "just wanted to be with her forever." He kills her when she rejects him, because as Sunhill explains she was too emotionally damaged to love anybody]].
* MercyKilling: Brenner sees General Campbell's betrayal of Elisabeth by covering up her rape is what really killed her, and that Kent's murder of her just put her out of her misery.
* MotiveRant: The killer doesn't give his until he's asked. A more eager and unsolicited MotiveRant is made by [[spoiler:Col. Fowler, the General's adjutant]], in an effort to justify the actions of the person he mistakenly believes to be the killer -- [[spoiler: General Campbell]].
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:When Brenner accuses General Campbell of how his ParentalBetrayal is what lead to Elisabeth's murder, the general swears he loved her but the complication of her rape at West Point meant he and the other general's had to protect the Army's reputation for women. But Brenner points out he got promoted immediately after, a bribe almost, only keeping silent for the advancement of his career.]]
* OminousLatinChanting: An oddly diegetic example--"O Fortuna" happens to be playing in Col. Moore's home when [[spoiler:he's found dead]].
* ParentalBetrayal: Turns out to be the key element. [[spoiler:General Campbell helped cover up his daughter's rape in exchange for a promotion; he tries to justify it with protecting the honor of West Point, the base where the rape occurred, but he got another star out of it. Elisabeth could probably have recovered from the rape, as she was already smiling at her father when he came back from overseas to visit her. The betrayal was significantly more traumatic, and destroyed her]].

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: [[spoiler:Colonel Kent may have been the one to kill Elisabeth, but other than being one of the men she had an affair with, he played no other part in her downfall. He wasn't one of the rapists or an officer who was involved in the coverup, he was just a jilted lover. When Brenner accuses General Campbell of killing his daughter, he points out Kent's the one who strangled her. Brenner's response is that all he did was put her out of her misery and that the ParentalBetrayal is what killed her.]]

* PromiscuityAfterRape: Captain Elisabeth Campbell became a sexual deviant after enduring a horrific gang rape years before during her training at West Point. However, this is revealed to be a subversion: [[spoiler:she wanted to get revenge on her father the General, who helped cover up the rape, by seducing most of his staff to embarass him. The main character concludes that this was the real cause of her SanitySlippage, not the rape itself]].
* RapeAndRevenge: A more elaborate example than usual [[spoiler:is the reason why Elisabeth Campbell [[TheVamp seduced all of the men]] under her father's direct command over the course of several years -- so she would be able to humiliate the general as vengeance for him covering up her rape. It's even called "an exercise in psychological warfare" by one of the accused. General Campbell actually allows her death to happen because he wants ''her'' to stop hurting ''him''.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Brenner spends the whole movie trying to figure out who killed Elisabeth, which leads to an investigation of her rape [[spoiler:while at West Point which was covered up]]. During his search for truth, he is told by Col. Moore that what happened to her was worse than rape. His response, "What's worse than rape?" is pure this trope. The answer is: [[spoiler:Betrayal. The General agreed to help cover up his daughter's rape in exchange for a promotion]].
* RapeLeadsToInsanity: Subverted. It turns out that [[spoiler:it wasn't her brutal gang rape during military school that lead to the late Elisabeth Campbell's SanitySlippage. [[ParentalBetrayal The betrayal of her General father]], who refused to investigate the crime further because he thought they wouldn't be able to apprehend the suspects and because he allowed himself to be bought out by his own superiors, was the event that broke her mind and sent her into a downward spiral]].
* RefugeInAudacity: Brenner hits on Elisabeth with a basket full of bath products. Elisabeth doesn't respond that well [[spoiler:due to her psychological problems]]... At first.
-->'''Brenner''': I like the pink soaps... I like the skin softener, and I particularly like the bath beads. Sometimes I fill the tub with skin softeners and bath beads. I light a few candles, put on some Coltrane and soak my troubles away.\\

* SecondaryCharacterTitle: Captain Elisabeth Campbell is the impetus for the plot, but since it revolves around [[PlotTriggeringDeath the investigation of her murder]], she's neither one of the leads (Brenner, Sunhill), nor one of the bad guys ([[spoiler:Kent, General Campbell]]).
* SelfDisposingVillain: [[spoiler:When Kent reveals himself to have strangled Elisabeth after he found her tied up, then rejected him after he tried to help, he kills himself by stepping on a landmine rather than face justice.]]
* SheepInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Colonel Robert Moore]] was suspected of having something to do with Elisabeth's murder because they were first name basis friends, and his fingerprints were even found at the crime scene. [[spoiler:Not only was he AcquittedTooLate, but he was secretly gay (negating any accusation he was taking advantage of her), and only tied her down as part of Elisabeth's plan to twist her father's arm, and he couldn't talk her out of it.]]

* ThatManIsDead: Played with. [[spoiler:When Brenner is accusing General Campbell of killing his daughter when he told Elisabeth to forget her rape, the General is adamant that Kent did it by strangling her. Brenner explains that all Kent did was put her out of her misery, but what killed the original, brilliant Elisabeth Campbell was when he chose to commit ParentalBetrayal, ensuring that all that was left was a shell.]] Even her therapist described her as having "Gone away inside."
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. [[spoiler:Campbell's psychologist at West Point did all he could to help her recover from the trauma of the gang-rape and her father's betrayal. It didn't help, as she had already closed herself off to outside support by then]].

* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The film combines this trope with RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil. A female officer, the eponymous General's daughter, is revealed to have endured a horrific gang rape from male soldiers [[spoiler:while she was enrolled at West Point]]. The rape was already traumatizing, but she might have recovered from it until [[spoiler:her father betraying her by covering the event up to get a promotion for himself]] broke her psyche completely. The investigator (played by John Travolta) ends up concluding that it was [[spoiler:her father]] who really killed her and promises that he'll prosecute both him and the rapists for their crimes.

* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler:Colonel Fowler was tasked by General Campbell with dealing with Captain Campbell after her explosive confrontation with her father. When he found her dead body, he immediately assumed that the General snapped and killed her in a rage for her humiliating improprieties that damaged his command (as it turns out, Fowler was wrong; the General did not kill her). Instead of reporting what he had seen, he covered up for his superior and later, after Brenner reveals his findings, was willing to fall on his own sword to protect his reputation.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Army generals who covered up [[spoiler: the rape]] at West Point. It was considered unsolvable (indeed, forensic DNA testing had only been accepted in American courts in ''1992'', the same year [[spoiler: the rape ]] took place) and the generals chose to cover it up rather than risk the Academy's reputation destroyed by this kind of unsolvable crime.[[spoiler: The rape in question was not solved for seven years, when the threat of a DNA test spooked a witness (if not a rapist himself) to rat out the rapists. ]]
* WhamLine: Colonel Fowler gives one that makes Brenner realize he's been lied to. [[spoiler:OnceMoreWithClarity makes it clear that Kent is the murderer.]]

The titular character is Captain Elizabeth Campbell ({{Creator/Leslie Stefanson}}), a specialist in psychological operations. She is the daughter of Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell (Creator/JamesCromwell), an ambitious man with political aspirations. Father and daughter serve in a Georgia Army Base. Early in the film, Campbell's nude body is found staked down with tent poles, strangled, and presumably raped. Warrant officers Paul Brenner (Creator/JohnTravolta) and Sara Sunhill (Creator/MadeleineStowe) are called in to investigate.

** Lieutenant Elby never attacks Brenner in the book. He also never slept with Elizabeth. He was just someone the general tried to setup his daughter with, but after she died, he ends up being [[ReassignedToAntarctica posted to Guam]].

* AdaptationNameChange: In the novel, Capt. Campbell's first name is Ann rather than Elizabeth. Similarly, Brenner's partner is named Cynthia in the novel, not Sara.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:One of the General's reasons for the cover up is that they likely would never be able to bring his daughter's assailants to justice, but the detectives are able to bust them all in a few days despite the trail being years old. However, the reasons why Brenner and Sunhill were able to identify the culprits so quickly were all a result of the time lapse. Campbell's former academy psychologist only revealed the name of one of the culprits after he was distraught by being informed of Campbell's death, and the methods used to get that guy to confess and identify the other perpetrators relied on forensic technology having sufficiently developed in the intervening years to make the threat credible. It's open to speculation how successful the investigation would have been if it were carried out immediately after the fact, and if the military would be willing to break medical ethics in regard to the severity of the crime; in the book, Brenner is confident the case would have been solved promptly had it been pursued, as such an elaborate conspiracy cannot be protected from the scrutiny of a real investigation]]. But then again, the point was [[spoiler:the military, General Campbell included, decided that their image of integrity was more important than actually ''having'' integrity. By covering up Elizabeth's rape, they preserved West Point's image, and General Campbell even got a promotion out of it. All it cost them was Elizabeth]].
* ArmiesAreEvil: Not exactly, since while this film portrays some of the worse parts of the service, it also shows most of the soldiers themselves are normal, hardworking men and women and that it's just a few bad apples who end up doing all the damage... [[spoiler:save that the key plot element is that the crimes of those "bad apples" are often covered up instead of prosecuted rather than suffer a scandal. In a flashback, after Elizabeth's gangrape by a group of fellow soldiers back at the academy, the pair of (male) soldiers who find her are both completely horrified. However, high command orders ''everyone'' to shut up -- and the fact that everyone ''does'' keep their mouths shut for ''years'' is why Elizabeth goes stark staring mad, knowing that so many of her "comrades" ''including her father'' would conceal such a crime if they were JustFollowingOrders to do so]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Brenner is able to give Elizabeth the justice she deserves at the cost of his own career. But he makes the correct decision in choosing his own integrity over blind loyalty to the military]].

* DirtyOldMan: Colonel Moore is shown to be a rather sleazy sort, having engaged in hardcore bondage sessions with his "student" Elizabeth Campbell.
* DrivingQuestion: Beyond the {{Whodunnit}} of Elizabeth Campbell's rape and murder, Colonel Moore expresses the real driving question of the mystery ("What's [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil worse than rape]]?") and states that Brenner will truly understand Elizabeth's death once he's discovered the answer. [[spoiler:It's [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil personal betrayal]]]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Colonel Kent commits suicide via bouncing betty mine when it is discovered that he killed Elizabeth.
* EroticAsphyxiation: Elizabeth got up to all kinds of kinky stuff, this included. [[spoiler:There are elements of this in her rape and (consequently) murder, as well, as the perpetrators tied a noose around her neck during the assault, and her cause of death was strangulation]].

** While Brenner and Sunhill are looking through Elizabeth's belongings after her death, they see old news photographs of General Campbell holding his daughter in his arms while visiting a recently pacified warzone to prove to the press that the area under his command is now safe. Sunhill notes that the little girl looks terrified. [[spoiler:This foreshadows that Campbell is not above using his daughter to advance his own career, ultimately denying her justice by covering up her rape at West Point for his own advancement in the chain of command]].
** Brenner tells Sunhill early on in the film that motives for murder include "profit, revenge, jealousy, to conceal a crime, to avoid humiliation and disgrace, or plain old homicidal mania." [[spoiler: Kent murders Elizabeth out of homicidal mania because she told him he meant nothing to her/jealousy that she was sleeping with other men, and then killed Moore to conceal his crime. Elizabeth did what she did to get revenge on her father, the general, and Colonel Fowler, his aide, helped General Campbell to cover up his involvement so that the general could avoid disgrace. Literally ''everyone's'' motives are covered by this line]].
* TheGeneralsDaughter: ''Not'' a straight example, despite the title - Elizabeth tries to invoke this trope in order to discredit her father, rather than any of the men under his command.
* HateSink: General Joseph Campbell is responsible for his daughter's downward spiral, and ultimately her death. He is shown to care more about his ambitions than justice for his daughter Elizabeth - as well as West Point's image of integrity over its actual integrity. Years prior, Elizabeth was gang-rapped by a group of soldiers, and Campbell agreed to help cover it up in exchange for a promotion. When Elizabeth tried to recreate her rape to get him to redeem himself, he refuses and abandons her. As this is exposed, he tries to maintain the cover up to the bitter end. When Campbell is court-martialed in disgrace, Warrant officer Brenner cites that it was his betrayal that broke Elizabeth worse than her rape.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Kent fell in love with Elizabeth after she slept with him repeatedly, explaining that he "just wanted to be with her forever." He kills her when she rejects him, because as Sunhill explains she was too emotionally damaged to love anybody]].
* MercyKilling: Brenner sees General Campbell's betrayal of Elizabeth by covering up her rape is what really killed her, and that Kent's murder of her just put her out of her misery.

* ParentalBetrayal: Turns out to be the key element. [[spoiler:General Campbell helped cover up his daughter's rape in exchange for a promotion; he tries to justify it with protecting the honor of West Point, the base where the rape occurred, but he got another star out of it. Elizabeth could probably have recovered from the rape, as she was already smiling at her father when he came back from overseas to visit her. The betrayal was significantly more traumatic, and destroyed her]].

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: [[spoiler:Colonel Kent may have been the one to kill Elizabeth, but other than being one of the men she had an affair with, he played no other part in her downfall. He wasn't one of the rapists or an officer who was involved in the coverup, he was just a jilted lover. When Brenner accuses General Campbell of killing his daughter, he points out Kent's the one who strangled her. Brenner's response is that all he did was put her out of her misery and that the ParentalBetrayal is what killed her.]]
* PowerfulPeopleAreSubs: Colonel Moore is shown to have been the submissive party in the late Elizabeth's BDSM play, inverting their official mentor-protegé relationship.
* PromiscuityAfterRape: Captain Elizabeth Campbell became a sexual deviant after enduring a horrific gang rape years before during her training at West Point. However, this is revealed to be a subversion: [[spoiler:she wanted to get revenge on her father the General, who helped cover up the rape, by seducing most of his staff to embarass him. The main character concludes that this was the real cause of her SanitySlippage, not the rape itself]].
* RapeAndRevenge: A more elaborate example than usual [[spoiler:is the reason why Elizabeth Campbell [[TheVamp seduced all of the men]] under her father's direct command over the course of several years -- so she would be able to humiliate the general as vengeance for him covering up her rape. It's even called "an exercise in psychological warfare" by one of the accused. General Campbell actually allows her death to happen because he wants ''her'' to stop hurting ''him''.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Colonel Bill Kent]] killed Elizabeth after he [[spoiler: became obsessed with her and she rejected him]].
* SecretRoom: After the esteemed Elizabeth Campbell's mysterious murder, Brenner and Sunhill investigate her house. Nothing looks out of the ordinary until they find a secret room filled with [[BondageIsBad bondage equipment]], revealing Elizabeth's secret sex life and videotapes implicating much of the base's staff.
* SecondaryCharacterTitle: Captain Elizabeth Campbell is the impetus for the plot, but since it revolves around [[PlotTriggeringDeath the investigation of her murder]], she's neither one of the leads (Brenner, Sunhill), nor one of the bad guys ([[spoiler:Kent, General Campbell]]).
* SelfDisposingVillain: [[spoiler:When Kent reveals himself to have strangled Elizabeth after he found her tied up, then rejected him after he tried to help, he kills himself by stepping on a landmine rather than face justice.]]
* SheepInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Colonel Robert Moore]] was suspected of having something to do with Elizabeth's murder because they were first name basis friends, and his fingerprints were even found at the crime scene. [[spoiler:Not only was he AcquittedTooLate, but he was secretly gay (negating any accusation he was taking advantage of her), and only tied her down as part of Elizabeth's plan to twist her father's arm, and he couldn't talk her out of it.]]

* ThatManIsDead: Played with. [[spoiler:When Brenner is accusing General Campbell of killing his daughter when he told Elizabeth to forget her rape, the General is adamant that Kent did it by strangling her. Brenner explains that all Kent did was put her out of her misery, but what killed the original, brilliant Elizabeth Campbell was when he chose to commit ParentalBetrayal, ensuring that all that was left was a shell.]] Even her therapist described her as having "Gone away inside."

* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The film combines this trope with RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil. A female officer, the eponymous General's daughter, is revealed to have endured a horrific gang rape from male soldiers while she was enrolled at West Point. The rape was already traumatizing, but she might have recovered from it until [[spoiler:her father betraying her by covering the event up to get a promotion for himself]] broke her psyche completely. The investigator (played by John Travolta) ends up concluding that it was [[spoiler:her father]] who really killed her and promises that he'll prosecute both him and the rapists for their crimes.

* AdaptationNameChange: In the novel, Capt. Campbell's first name is Ann rather than Elizabeth. Similarly, Brenner's partner is named Cynthia in the novel, not Sara.'

* RapeAndRevenge: A more elaborate example than usual [[spoiler:is the reason why Elizabeth Campbell [[TheVamp seduced all of the men]] under her father's direct command over the course of several years -- so she would be able to humiliate the general as vengeance for him covering up her rape. It's even called "an exercise in psychological warfare" by one of the accused. General Campbell actually allows her death to happen because he wants ''her'' to stop hurting ''him''.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Colonel Bill Kent]] killed Elizabeth after he [[spoiler: became obsessed with her and she rejected him]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: the Army generals who covered up [[spoiler: the rape]] at West Point. It was considered unsolvable (indeed, forensic DNA testing had only been accepted in American courts in ''1992'', the same year [[spoiler: the rape ]] took place) and the generals chose to cover it up rather than risk the Academy's reputation destroyed by this kind of unsolvable crime.[[spoiler: The rape in question was not solved for seven years, when the threat of a DNA test spooked a witness (if not a rapist himself) to rat out the rapists. ]]

* TheReveal: Colonel Bill Kent killed Elizabeth after he became obsessed with her and she rejected him.

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: [[spoiler:Colonel Kent may have been the one to kill Elizabeth, but other than being one of the men she had an affair with, he played no other part in her downfall. He wasn't one of the rapists, an officer who was involved in the coverup, nothing but a jilted lover. When Brenner accuses General Campbell of killing his daughter, he points out Kent's the one who strangled her. Brenner's response is that all he did was put her out of her misery and that the ParentalBetrayal is what killed her.]]

'''Brenner''': Well, possible motives for murder are profit, revenge, jealousy, to conceal a crime, to avoid humiliation and disgrace, or plain old homicidal mania. Right there in the manual.[[note]]He's wrong.[[/note]]

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:One of the General's reasons for the cover up is that they likely would never be able to bring his daughter's assailants to justice, but the detectives are able to bust them all in a few days despite the trail being years old. However, the reasons why Brenner and Sunhill were able to identify the culprits so quickly were all a result of the time lapse. Campbell's former academy psychologist only revealed the name of one of the culprits after he was distraught by being informed of Campbell's death, and the methods used to get that guy to confess and identify the other perpetrators relied on forensic technology having sufficiently developed in the intervening years to make the threat credible. It's open to speculation how successful the investigation would have been if it were carried out immediately after the fact, and if the military would be willing to break medical ethics in regard to the severity of the crime]]. But then again, the point was [[spoiler:the military, General Campbell included, decided that their image of integrity was more important than actually ''having'' integrity. By covering up Elizabeth's rape, they preserved West Point's image, and General Campbell even got a promotion out of it. All it cost them was Elizabeth]].

* HateSink: General Joseph Campbell is responsible for his daughter's downward spiral, and ultimately her death. He is shown care more about his ambitions than justice for his daughter Elizabeth - as well as West Points image of integrity over its actual integrity. Years prior, Elizabeth was gang-rapped by a group of soldiers, and Campbell agreed to help cover it up in exchange for a promotion. When Elizabeth tried to recreate her rape to get him to redeem himself, he refuses and abandons her. As this is exposed, he tries to maintain the cover up to the bitter end. When Campbell is court-martialed in disgrace, Warrant officer Brenner cites that it was his betrayal that broke Elizabeth worse than her rape.

* HateSink: General Joseph Campbell is responsible for his daughters downward spiral, and ultimately her death. He is shown care more about his ambitions than justice for his daughter Elizabeth - as well as West Points image of integrity over its actual integrity. Years prior, Elizabeth was gang-rapped by a group of soldiers, and Campbell agreed to help cover it up in exchange for a promotion. When Elizabeth tried to recreate her rape to get him to redeem himself, he refuses and abandons her. As this is exposed, he tries to maintain the cover up to the bitter end. When Campbell is court-martialed in disgrace, Warrant officer Brenner cites that it was his betrayal that broke Elizabeth worse than her rape.

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the novel General Campbell [[spoiler: Accepts responsibility for ruining his daughters life and contributing to her death and resigns on his own accord, rather than trying to cover it up to the bitter end and having Brenner expose him]]. The film also omits [[PetTheDog his acceptance of his gay son]], although that may have been because it would have been a bigger deal in 1992 than in 1999.

'''Elisabeth''': Very good, First Sergeant. I levied an accusation of sexism at you, and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny you took it three times around the dance floor]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the novel General Campbell [[spoiler: Accepts responsibility for ruining his daughters life and contributing to her death and resigns on his own accord, rather than trying to cover it up to the bitter end and having Brenner expose him]]. The film also omits [[PetTheDog his acceptance of his gay son]], although that may have been because [[SocietyMarchesOn it would have been a bigger deal in 1992 than in 1999]].

* SheepInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Colonel Robert Moore]] was suspected of having something to do with Elizabeth's murder because they were first name basis friends, and his fingerprints were even found at the crime scene. [[spoiler:Not only was he AcquittedTooLate, but he was secretly gay (negating any accusation he was taking advantage of her), and only nailed her down as part of Elizabeth's plan to twist her father's arm, and he couldn't talk her out of it.]]

** Brenner tells someone that, "you have no right to remain silent," when Article 31 of the UCMJ allows precisely that. [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole In the book, it was a valid statement]]. Brenner told the person that he was speaking to, "You are under arrest and you are not a suspect in this crime, therefore you do not have the right to remain silent and you are required to answer my questions."

-->'''Brenner''': Hey, I'll have you know that cheesy southern accent is what's keeping me alive right now.

[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_generals_daughter_1999_poster.jpg]]

The titular character is Captain Elizabeth Campbell ({{Creator/Leslie Stefanson}}), a specialist in psychological operations. She is the daughter of Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell (Creator/JamesCromwell), an ambitious man with political aspirations. Father and daughter serve in a Georgia Army Base. Early in the film, Campbell's nude body is found staked down with tent poles, strangled, and presumably raped. Warrant officers Paul Brenner (Creator/JohnTravolta) and Sara Sunhill (MadelineStowe) are called in to investigate.

The titular character is Captain Elizabeth Campbell ({{Creator/Leslie Stefanson}}), a specialist in psychological operations. She is the daughter of Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell (Creator/JamesCromwell), an ambitious man with political aspirations. Father and daughter serve in a Georgia Army Base. Early in the film, Campbell's nude body is found staked down with tent poles, strangled, and presumably raped. Warrant officers Paul Brenner (Creator/JohnTravolta) and Sara Sunhill (Madeline Stowe) are called in to investigate.