A Masterpiece!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This was before his big breakthrough in The Terminator, the following year. And he doesent dissapoint. Neither does David Keith in the lead (who looks exactly like a young Patrick Swayze) Bill Paxton and Rick Rossovich (in his biggest movie role as an actor (ever) are quite good as well. Biehn who is very young here plays the main villain as the leader of a group of kadets in a military academy in 1964, known as the ten. Who kidnap and torture new privates to make them leave the academy. Biehn shows already here what a great actor he is. Being a very convincing menacing bully with out much more more than a mean smile here and there. Bonus info. Biehn , Paxton and Rossovich were great friends, who probably met on the set of this movie. And throughout the 80'ies and up till 1993 they always appeared in Biehns movies. Rossovich and Paxton had small parts in The Terminator, where Biehn played the heroic lead. Paxton played one of the leads alongside Biehn in Aliens. In Navy Seals, where Biehn played one of the leads, Rossovich and Paxton once more played supporting characters. And finally in Tombstone, where Biehn played one of the main villains, Paxton appeared one last time in a supporting role.As for this movie, apart from one brutal torture scene, this felt like a lighter version of the much better Full Metal Jacket, that came out four years later. Which was obviousdly inspired by this movie, but took it to a more menacing level. F.M.J. is of course also a war movie, but its impossible not top compare the two. Especially, because one of the victims of the ten, reminds me a lot of the bullied fat private in F.M.J. There are severeal plotholes, that doesnt make sense. But if you can look past them, you might enjoy this movie. And its not a bad movie, but unless youre a Biehn fan, like me, you will probably find it boring.

A movie about discipline, the Lords of Discipline is the wrong title to what could have been a great movie. David Keith stars in a Taps like movie where a coming of age drama turns into a thriller. Some interesting characters, that end up not going anywhere, the movie has a plot but no real story that drives the audience to keep watching. Issues of race and equality take a back seat to the overall story of discipline. Military schools are looked upon as either a wrong idea run by the wrong people, or the only real justice left. These questions are not answered as David Keith tries to lead his cast. Instead, a nice movie, but far from anything great. Much like David Keith's performance, the movie falls short of anything timeless.

As a cadet who experienced a very similar situation, I found the story to be very close to the truth. I enjoyed watching the movie although most (if not all) of the performances were stilted and stuffy! I was a former R.O.T.C. cadet, who was actually supposed to attend The Citadel (the institution that movie supposedly depicts) and attended another Military College...I found the depictions very close to some of the "on-goings" of Military College life for cadets (at that time), including some of the treatment of cadets with different ethnic backgrounds.The performances of the "actors" in this movie showed their inexperience at that time. Although, some of those actors learned from the experience and are some of the best known character actors, although mostly in comedic roles (I wonder, why?) of current films, including: Judge Reinhold and "Wild" Bill Paxton.I recommend this film as a film to be watched by those learning how to act. It is a prime example of what not to do. Hopefully, no one imitates any of the acting in this film but hopefully they will use it as a learning tool.

Set in a Carolina officer cadet school THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE tells the story of a racist guild within the school who are hell bent on making sure no black cadet will ever be at the passing out parade . It`s a fairly good film but had the potential to be so much better . The problem I had is that it takes place through the eyes of cadre officer Will who I thought just a little bit too fine , upstanding and moral to take seriously and it`s because of this the film doesn`t reach the heights it could have . It should also be pointed out because it`s filmed in England doubling as an American military base I couldn`t help but be reminded of the first half of FULL METAL JACKET , it never helps a movie comparing it to that classic segment But as I said LORDS OF DISCIPLINE is an entertaining enough movie that features a bunch of actors who almost became stars in the 1980s . See if you can spot them