Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505220013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First, the story being told is true and important. Second, it is told grippingly well. Third, Gail O'Grady gives a solid, commanding and heartfelt performance in the central role.
All the other good reasons are probably less relevant than those three. And ``Tailhook'' is nothing if not relevant itself. The docudrama brings back painful memories of a notorious 1991 incident at a Naval aviators convention in Las Vegas. Some of the women attending were put through the demeaning humiliation of being groped, mauled and otherwise sexually abused by drunken junior officers who formed what they called ``The Gauntlet'' as part of a wild party.
It had apparently happened before, at many another Tailhook. But, according to the film, one woman was determined to see it not happen again. O'Grady, who is usually seen as Donna Abandando on ``NYPD Blue,'' plays Lt. Paula Coughlin, an officer and aspiring pilot who is put through the insulting ritual and later insists the Navy seek out and reprimand those responsible.
Then she discovers there's another gauntlet to run, this one manned by bureaucrats and co-conspirators. Coughlin is in for another ordeal, but she vows to tough it out in the interest of what's right. The case became a landmark in the fight against sexual harassment, but it involves more than men vs. women; it's an issue of human beings treating others as somehow less than human, a violation of the simplest decency.
``Those guys really know how to have a good time,'' says one envious male TV reporter at the convention as the film gets under way. Coughlin is attending Tailhook as an aide to Adm. Snyder (Rip Torn) who, when he learns of the incident later, dismisses the assault as ``a little rowdy behavior'' and says, ``The boys were letting off a little steam.''
Having recently triumphed in the Gulf War, the Navy guys thought of themselves as heroes and then proceeded to behave as true heroes never would.
Coughlin is thwarted at every turn, and not just by the Old Boy Network. Some of the old girls discourage her from pursuing the case, too, telling Coughlin it'll be much better for her career if she doesn't rock any boats. A male friend says, ``You want to keep your job, you keep your mouth shut.'' A reluctant prosecutor assigned to the case tells Coughlin, ``Too bad you didn't get raped, Lieutenant. Then we'd have a real case.''
The script by Suzette Couture, one of the better TV writers around, is sophisticated enough not to depict all the men as drooling ghouls nor all the women as saintly martyrs. Hal Holbrook as Adm. Kelso is shown to be a man who wants the truth and not a cover-up, though he has to be prodded a bit by newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy Barbara Pope, played assertively by Bess Armstrong - graduating here from the kind of cutesy ding-a-lings she usually plays.
Director Larry Shaw keeps the film brisk and crisp and resists the temptation to oversimplify or hype the story. The filmmakers do practice a bit of teasey titillation, however. They show the attack on Coughlin very briefly when it occurs, then go back to it later in greater detail during flashbacks. It's a common technique in TV movies but not very laudable.
That's a small flaw, though, in what turns out to be an impressively forthright movie. O'Grady plays Couglin with dignity and class, never groveling to get the audience's sympathy. A prologue in which we see Coughlin as a little girl dreaming of being a flier gets the movie off to a particularly good start, but it only gets better and better.
Stories of individuals who stand up against the system and its injustices can be genuinely inspiring or just transparently manipulative. In exposing one of the worst of traditions, ``She Stood Alone'' proves itself to be in the best of traditions. Everyone involved can be proud of this one.
by CNB