Is that Bancroft Hall or the Philadelphia Art Museum?
Bottom line up front: Annapolis is not going to win any Oscars. Take a spoonful of An Officer and a Gentleman, Top Gun, and half a dozen other up-by-the-bootstraps military movies. Now add a dash of Rocky. The concoction that emerges is a movie more about boxing and coming-of-age than the Naval Academy.
Our hero challenges authority until it beats him into submission, smiles at his female superior until she becomes his personal trainer ("Ma'am yes ma'am!"), and picks fights with his roommates and company commander until they bond. Midshipmen at this Naval Academy rarely seem to attend class. There's no time for anything except the Brigade boxing tournament. Oh, and they aren't thinking about the war in Iraq, either.
Service academy stories have fascinated the American entertainment industry for decades. But whose idea was this latest incarnation? What succession of accidents and coincidences propelled this particular story onto celluloid? And whom should we thank for bringing the nuances of culture at Canoe U to the producer, director, and writer? The plebes in Annapolis flirt with their seniors, but they also know how to respond when asked about the cow. How did this happen?
Dave Collard, who wrote the screenplay for Annapolis, and Damien Saccani, one of the movie's producers, were friends at Middlebury College in Vermont. After they graduated, they went to Hollywood. Saccani became a producer. Collard, according to his biography, "worked odd jobs to keep a roof over his head." He later became a writer for the cartoon sitcom Family Guy and wrote the screenplay for the Denzel Washington crime drama Out of Time.
In June 2001, according to the movie's production notes (available at http://annapolis.movies.com), Collard read a Sports Illustrated article about the Academy's Brigade boxing championships. With an enticing teaser—"There aren't many great fighters in the Naval Academy's annual boxing tournament, but there are always plenty of great fights"—the article detailed an epic clash between Midshipmen Dustin Lonero and Tommy Clarke (Class of '01). "The mission of the Academy is to instill the warrior spirit in young people who could be leaders in combat," physical education director Tom Virgets says in the article. "Nothing frames that mission better than this boxing tournament."
Apparently, Collard and Saccani agreed. The pair of friends—neither had any military experience—resolved to make a movie around this annual pugilistic extravaganza. To them, the Brigade boxing tournament symbolized the entire Naval Academy experience; a vehicle that propels its participants to future fame (the article draws heavily on the 1967 James Webb-Oliver North bout to flesh out this myth). After 9/11, movie studios such as Disney, which eventually purchased Annapolis, saw military themes as profit. Since they knew nothing about life at the Naval Academy, Collard, Saccani, director Justin Lin, and the crew needed a technical advisor. Enter Scott Carson.
A 1991 graduate, Scott Carson played safety on the Navy football team, served as a Marine officer with the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, and deployed to Somalia. He left the Corps in 1997. His only previous movie credit was Stateside, a 2004 film about a Marine who falls for a dysfunctional rock star.
Carson's influence on the movie started with two weeks of "boot camp" for the cast, designed to mirror Plebe Summer at Annapolis. The production notes tell us that Carson drilled the actors in "the rules, rituals, and lifestyles at the Naval Academy." The notes also say that Carson advised on wardrobe, props, production design, and set decoration. Not much left, which means the Academy's portrayal was largely sculpted from Carson's vision.
And Carson's vision was all the directors and actors had to work with. The Department of Defense, the Navy, and the Naval Academy publicly distanced themselves from the 2006 film. What were the Navy's motivations? According to Rear Admiral Terry McCreary, the Navy's chief of information operations, the story "did not accurately portray the Academy, its standards for training, and its methods of shaping midshipmen." In what way was it inaccurate? "It is our general policy not to discuss specifics of any project that is turned down for our support." The Academy superintendent, Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt, issued similar non-statements through his public affairs officer.
The irony is that—quality and authenticity aside—Annapolis offers a positive portrayal of the choice to pursue naval service. Pictures of Crabtown itself in Annapolis, however, are nonexistent. Soon after the Academy voiced its objections and refused to allow filming on the Yard, the producers moved the set to Girard College in Rocky's Philadelphia. Although the producers were also wooed by tax incentives, the Academy's refusal to grant filming permission certainly weighed in their decision.
So what did the Navy find offensive? In an August 2004 article, an Academy spokesman said that officials were "concerned" about the budding plebe/upperclass romance (nothing naughty is filmed, but sexual tension is clearly present). Another topic of concern might have been scenes of plebe training. At times, plebes are forced to hold buckets of water for long periods, ordered to go without a meal, and compelled to do pushups in the rain.
Is this considered hazing? Is a gorgeous second-class midshipman fraternizing if—inspired by some mythical god of plebe fortune—she takes it upon herself to teach boxing to her young charge? If that's the case, the Navy should say so. But vague official statements, combined with a service-wide email urging naval personnel not to attend the movie in uniform, send a signal that smells more of political correctness than staunch defense of tradition.
Lackluster attempts to reproduce the Naval Academy experience on the silver screen are, in fact, something of a tradition. William Christy Cabanne, an Annapolis graduate, left the Navy in 1908 to join the theater. After his acting career failed, Cabanne became a director "of considerable longevity, but little distinction," according to the New York Times on-line movie archive. From 1912-1948, Cabanne directed 166 movies, including Annapolis (1928), Midshipman Jack (1933), and Annapolis Salute (1937). None of his attempts to honor his alma mater was critically successful.
Annapolis Salute wasn't the only Academy film of 1937. That year, a rising 29-year old actor named James Stewart starred in Navy Blue and Gold—perhaps the only Academy movie to receive favorable reviews. The last cinematic attempt to take the Severn to the screen prior to January 2006 was director Don Siegel's 1955 An Annapolis Story; the movie was panned as a "turgid romantic drama." Siegel went on to direct Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and Two Mules for Sister Sara.
In the 1950s, Men of Annapolis was produced for television; 39 episodes aired during a two-year series run. According to an April 2002 Naval History article, numerous Academy graduates, including at least one former superintendent (Vice Admiral John Ryan), credited the show with influencing their decision to seek an Annapolis education. The series was eventually, canceled not from lack of popular interest—it was a top-ten syndicated show in 1957—but because of differences between Hollywood and the Naval Academy administration.
Despite the poverty of the latest effort, the movie does have moments of guilty pleasure. No matter how bad the story, watching plebes spout rates on the big screen is entertaining. But entertainment should also be in the realm of reality when it claims to reflect it. For the cast and crew, and in particular Scott Carson, who was the Academy's face to the uninitiated, the movie is, as John Paul Jones might say, either a "well-meant shortcoming" or a "heedless . . . stupid blunder."
It may not be the critic who counts, but, contrary to Theodore Roosevelt, credit is not given for simply climbing into the arena. Acclaim follows when a film gets it right. Unfortunately, Annapolis misses by a nautical mile.
Mr. Danelo, a frequent contributor to Proceedings, is a 1998 graduate of the Naval Academy, a Marine combat veteran of Iraq, and free-lance writer. His first book, Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq, will be published by Stackpole Books in May.