A solid TV movie about the Tailhook Scandal when naval officers attacked and groped women on a hotel during a naval convention. But when Lt. Paula Coughlin (Gail O'Grady),
one of the victims, decided to speak out against her fellow comrades behavior demanding an investigation and conviction to them she became a pariah inside the institution that
failed to help her with her case. The incident happened in the early 1990's and it sparked a whole debate inside military institutions since it was a time they becoming more
receptive about the inclusion of female officers but the male-centric idealism and behavior was not only of opposition on women but when they got there they simply treated them as
sexual objects and respect never materialized.
We follow Coughlin as someone whose main dream and goal was to serve her nation inside the navy since her dad also served in the system and she felt her contribution to
the world would serve best as being a pilot. But then the incident broke out and she felt compelled to report it to her superiors (played by Rip Torn) but things didn't turn
favorably to her, so most of the film is about the obstacles she faces within the navy, being stonewalled time and again and unable to resume flying or go back to her team, demoted
to a bureaucratic function where people (including women) hate her for tarnishing the institution.
It was a very compelling movie with many great dramatic scenes and it feels relevant today after so many movements about diversity and the new views of respectful treatment
on women that one can make an interesting comparison or draw some parallels on how things were back in the 1990's and how they are today. O'Grady delivers a very good performance,
just as veteran Matt Clark, who plays her father, and together they respond for some of the best sequences in the movie when he goes from being a man who firmly believes in the
institution but little by little when his daughter open up about the case he becomes fully supportive of hers. Hal Holbrook brings plenty of quality to the material as the admiral
in charge of everything.
My only complaint is that as a TV movie things go a little soft in certain aspects that I know if had it been a theatrical piece this would be an incendiary film that could be
the talk of the town for years to come. Nonetheless, still a very good movie about an almost forgotten incident. 8/10.
