The list of very good to downright brilliant works in Ridley Scott’s filmography is long. However, you will not find the 1997 action drama “The Jane Files” on it. Despite perhaps even laudable initial intentions, this glossy exploitation nonsense is shockingly flat, ethically and morally highly questionable, and sometimes downright embarrassing.
“The Jane Files” runs today, November 20, 2023 at 8:15 PM on Cable 1. There will be a repeat on November 21 at 11:35 PM. If you want to watch the film despite our warning, but these dates are not convenient for you, you can rent or purchase the film as a paid video-on-demand from services such as AppleTV, Magenta TV and Maxdome. A German-language DVD is currently not available. The title can be found as an import with the original English sound at retailers such as Amazon.
The main character is played by Demi Moore (“A Question of Honor”), who was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood at the time of filming. Other roles include “The Lord of the Rings” Aragon Viggo Mortensen, two-time Oscar winner Ann Bancroft (“The Graduate”), Jason Beghe (“Chicago PD”) and Scott Wilson (“The Walking Dead”).
“The Jane Files” on Cable 1: That’s the story
Politician Lillian DeHaven (Bancroft) wants to make a name for herself in the public eye. She wants to do this by showing that it is possible for women to succeed even in the Navy Seals, one of the toughest military units in the world. From the candidates, she chooses Marine Lieutenant Jordan O’Neil (Moore), who is happy to take on the challenge.
However, shortly after arriving at the Florida base, she felt that she was not being taken seriously by both her superiors and the male recruits because of her gender. However, the biggest challenge for them is the cruel and ruthless instructor Urgayle (Mortensen), who shows that he will do his utmost to maintain his legendary statistics. This means that approximately two-thirds of applicants have voluntarily left the program each year – all men, mind you. There has never been a woman in the Seals. And Urgayle seems determined to keep it that way…
“A simple sadomasochistic fantasy”
When “The Jane Files” was released in U.S. theaters in August 1997, the reboot immediately went to number one on the charts. Pole position was maintained the following week. But that was less due to the qualities of the film and more to the hardly any competition, consisting of the tired action comedy ‘Money Doesn’t Stink’ and the insect horror ‘Mimic’, which only years later mutated into a cult. Ultimately, “The Jane Files” didn’t even reach its $50 million production budget.
The reason for this is probably because the majority of cinema audiences simply did not want to see a sometimes unintentionally funny, otherwise simply simple, reactionary, edgy, homophobic sadomasochistic fantasy in a music video look. With these words, author Jonas Reinartz describes the action drama in the FILMSTARTS review, which only gave it a disappointing 1.5 out of 5 possible stars, and that is completely justified.
Ridley Scott’s otherwise virtuoso direction seems to be a failed imitation of the weaker works of his brother Tony. It’s ultimately ruined by a stupid pseudo-feminist story full of hackneyed symbolism. While the instructor happily tortures the protagonist, he repeatedly ends up in cheap exploitation territory. When she is finally ’emancipated’, the whole thing no longer seems just embarrassing, but downright unpleasantly manipulative.
Scott was so shocked not only by the poor box office results, but by the largely scathing reviews that he took a rare hiatus. It took three years for the ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’ mastermind to return – with the much better masterpiece ‘Gladiator’ in every respect.
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