Line #14 Film/Taps


1	[[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0faf2a67c067527ff8c6cda76c9bb2e2.jpg]]
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3	->''"Never be ashamed of being human, Mr Moreland. Without humanity, a leader becomes a tyrant."''
4	-->-- '''General Bache'''
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6	''Taps'' is a 1981 film, directed by Harold Becker and starring Creator/GeorgeCScott, Creator/TimothyHutton, Creator/RonnyCox, Creator/SeanPenn, and Creator/TomCruise. The story revolves around young military cadets who take over their academy in order to prevent it from being closed and sold to real estate developers. It is [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] the novel ''Father Sky'' by Devery Freeman.
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8	It was the second screen appearance for Cruise (and his first major role after a brief appearance in ''Film/EndlessLove''), and the first non-TV movie for Penn. Hutton had already burst into the acting scene with his UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning performance in ''Literature/OrdinaryPeople''.
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11	!!These Tropes are beautiful, man ! Beautiful :
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13	* AFatherToHisMen: General Bache plays this role to the cadets at first, but once he's out of the picture, Brian steps up to replace him.
14	* AdultsAreUseless: Played for drama, as just about every adult save General Bache is either jeeringly dismissive towards the boys (the school administration) or completely disinterested in their day to day lives (their parents). [[TheDogBitesBack That is, until the boys seize the school by force of arms after they try to shut them down.]]
15	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: The standoff ends in bloody failure, with several deaths and the school still scheduled to be closed.]]
16	* AmbiguousSituation: When General Bache and a local teen scuffle over his pistol, closeup shots of their hands appear to show the teen drawing the gun and firing; however, when the film cuts back to a wider angle, the gun is in Bache's hand, and he acts as though he is the one who fired.
17	* AxCrazy: Shawn, ''especially'' by the end.
18	* BadassBoast: Colonel Kerby to Brian:
19	--> '''Kerby''':The governor is ''this'' close to ordering us to take you in by force. When that order comes, I'll do it and you won't ''ever'' be that unhappy again.
20	* BloodKnight: Shawn is the most militant of the three main characters, [[spoiler:and is the one who opens fire on the gathered National Guard just as Brian is about to surrender]].
21	* BoardingSchool: The cadets stay in barracks on the academy grounds.
22	* BringMyBrownPants: Mentioned by Bache in a war story he tells Moreland. "Of course I was scared. Must have lost twenty pounds, all of it brown."
23	* CallingTheOldManOut : Brian to Sergeant Moreland, who still considers him as a kid (see TheyCallMeMisterTibbs).
24	--> '''Brian''': He [''Bache''] is the example we follow!
25	* ChildSoldiers: The senior cadets are teenagers and there are considerably younger ones as well. Moreland even quotes what Bache taught him about children being the last line of muster, something that Col. Kerby finds horrifying.
26	* ColonelBadass: Kerby, from start to finish. At first, he tries a gentle and reasoned approach with Brian, as he genuinely understands their point of view. However, once the first cadet is killed and it becomes obvious that Brian still doesn't understand that he's in over his head, Kerby wastes no time in cutting him down to size. He tells Brian in no uncertain terms that he's just been playing at being a soldier, his views on war are incredibly naive and romanticized because they're based on classroom lectures and not real life, his cadets don't stand a chance against trained soldiers, and the campus ''will'' be retaken. While he's spelling all this out, it's clear from Brian's face and body language that he's having another BSOD.
27	* CurbStompBattle: An insane idiot armed with only an M-60 goes up against an M48 Main Battle Tank. It ends pretty much exactly how you would expect.
28	* CutPhoneLines: The cadets do this to the school themselves to keep out outside interference.
29	* TheDeadHaveNames: Church services at the school are said to always conclude with a reading of names from the Book of Remembrance, which lists every Bunker Hill graduate killed in action.
30	* DeathOfAChild: All the cadets who die.
31	* DeathSeeker: Colonel Kerby accuses Brian and other cadets of being this.
32	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Moreland's plan to force the school to re-open by taking it over with a bunch of armed children goes pretty much exactly as well as you'd expect it to go: into an increasingly downward spiral of disasters before ending in blood-soaked tragedy. Likewise, Shawn's decision to take on tanks with an M60 produces extremely predictable results.
33	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The film ends with several soldiers and cadets being killed and none of the demands of the cadets being met.]]
34	* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Bunker Hill is in essence a junior [[Main/MilitaryAcademy West Point]] or Citadetal, boasting the same sort of facilities as a proper military academy. Most notably, the school's armory boasts enough firepower to make the student body the envy of a comparably sized infantry unit.
35	* ElevatorSchool: The youngest cadets are middle school aged[[labelnote:*]]General Bache mentions having entered the academy when he was twelve[[/labelnote]]; Brian and his cohort are high school seniors.
36	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When climbing the stairs and getting to their room, right after the introduction ceremony, the three main characters are exposed:
37	** Brian Moreland is the gentle leader, respected by all others (we don't know yet he is the Cadet Major).
38	** Alex Dwyer is his [[TheCynic subversive]] close friend, mocking the book of remembrance.
39	** David Shawn admires Moreland but hates Dwyer (see FlippingTheBird) and already looks like an [[AxCrazy insane]], [[HairTriggerTemper angry]] {{Jerkass}}.
40	* FlippingTheBird: Shawn to Dwyer in introduction.
41	* ForegoneConclusion: The school ''IS'' going to be closed. Used by Colonel Kerby when telling Brian that [[{{Foreshadowing}} he can't win this]].
42	--> '''Col. Kerby''': Mr Moreland, you know, and I know, that it's never gonna go your way. You do know that, don't you ?
43	* FourStarBadass: General Bache. Played with, in that it's implied at several points that Bache's career stalled for whatever reason and his running the school is a way of reliving his GloryDays, and while he means well it's clear that his philosophy and teachings ultimately have harmful consequences.
44	* HeroicBSOD: Brian gets several when things start to go wrong.
45	* HonorBeforeReason: Brian, oh so much. Deconstructed, since Brian is informed by several people that rigidly and needlessly holding to his actions in the face of doomed circumstances for nothing but honor is a fool's errand, and ultimately it only results in people getting hurt and killed, [[spoiler:including Brian himself.]]
46	* MilitarySchool: Bunker Hill Military Academy. Unlike most depictions, the cadets love it there and are outraged that's it's going to be closed down and razed.
47	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
48	** Brian during his last BSOD about Charlie.
49	** General Bache has a similar reaction after accidentally shooting a local teen during a scuffle.
50	* NeverMyFault: When one of the cadets gets burned while starting an old generator, he claims it was an accident. When another cadet is shot and killed after a rifle is dropped and goes off, they blame Kerby and his men. Despite being called out on it, Brian doesn't seem to grasp that he's responsible for both incidents since he created the circumstances that led up to them.
51	* OhCrap: Colonel Kerby has this reaction when Brian calmly calls the younger cadets the "seed corn" that must be "mobilized" with weaponry: he realizes Moreland, whom he had considered intelligent but misguided, is actually a zealot.
52	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Colonel Kerby.
53	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: When Brian refers to himself as a "soldier," Colonel Kerby lets him have it:
54	--> '''Kerby''': A soldier? No, goddamnit, ''I'm'' a soldier, with the career goal of all soldiers - I want to stay alive in situations where it ain't all that easy to do! But you, my friend? You're a death-lover. I know the species. Seventeen years old and some son-of-a-bitch has put you in love with death. Somebody sold you on the idea that dying for a cause is oh, so romantic. Well, that is the worst kind of all the kinds of bullshit there is! Dying is only one thing: ''bad!'' Don't find that out. Please!
55	* SarcasticDevotee / SourSupporter: Alex Dwyer is this to Brian Moreland.
56	* SwissCheeseSecurity: General Bache keeps a huge arsenal in the academy, in a building that apparently all the cadets can freely access. This is particularly absurd when you consider the actual U. S. military maintains their firearms on domestic bases in highly secured armories that only certain qualified personnel have access to.
57	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Impersonated with Shawn vs. Dwyer.
58	* {{Taps}}: Obviously pops up a number of times; at the beginning when the school reads off the names and dates of alumni who fell in battle, [[spoiler: and when they have their memorial service for General Bache]]. The movie's title, and thus the TropeNamer, also indicates the impending death of the academy.
59	* SoldierVsWarrior: Played with. The Soldier half of the equation is perfectly exemplified by Col. Kerby and his National Guard troops, but the cadets approach being a deconstruction of the Warrior trope -- naive, dangerously misguided kids raised on highly romanticized notions of war. Most have their beliefs shattered the instant they get the smallest taste of actual combat.
60	* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Brian to his father :
61	-->'''Brian''': Stop calling me kid.\
62	'''Sgt Moreland''': You expect me to call you Major ? You can forget it.
63	* [[WeHaveReserves They Have Reserves]]: From Bache : "They kept coming at us, wave after wave. Totally indifferent to casualties. Of course, the Chinese always had plenty of bodies to spare."
64	* WhoWillBellTheCat: After the National Guard are first called in, Brian musters all of the cadets together and offers any of them who want to leave a chance to do so freely. It was ''absolutely clear'' that many of them wanted to, but no one wanted to be the first to step forward... until Lt. West, who'd been trying hard to act as a voice of reason for Brian, recognized that things were now spinning out of control and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere requested to be dismissed]], followed by nearly half the cadets. This was Brian's first BSOD, and probably the closest he came to realizing it was a lost cause.
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69	:: ''- What in God's name did they teach you in here? What did they turn you into?''
70	:: ''- A TROPER, which is the only thing I ever wanted to be !''
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Context Film / Taps