THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 6, 1995 TAG: 9502040012
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
THE KISS. THE LESBIAN Kiss. It takes but a moment or two at the conclusion of tonight's 9 p.m. movie on NBC, ``Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story.''
But The Kiss was talked about for hours, it seemed, when Cammermeyer and the actress who plays her on NBC tonight, William and Mary grad Glenn Close, met with TV reporters in Los Angeles not long ago. The Kiss is actually three kisses - tender and emotional kisses rather than tonsil-swabbing kisses - between Close and Judy Davis, who plays Cammermeyer's lover.
``The movie would be a dishonest portrayal of homosexuals without the kiss. But the kiss is not what this movie is about,'' said Close. ``The movie is a personal story about a decorated Army nurse and officer, her family and the woman with whom she shares a life after the trauma of what happens to her in the military.''
Cammermeyer's life turned inside out on a day in 1989 when, at the age of 47, she was about to be cleared to handle top-secret materials. She was chief nurse with the Washington State National Guard, a bird colonel on her way to becoming a general and the Army's No. 1 nurse.
She had 24 years of service, including a hitch in Vietnam for which she won the Bronze Star. This brilliant military career was put off its track when, in the meeting to upgrade her military clearance, she uttered one short sentence.
``I am a lesbian.''
``That routine interview about upgrading my military clearance to top secret turned into an interrogation,'' Cammermeyer writes in the autobiography upon which the NBC movie is based. ``I was investigated, discharged, persecuted. Those four words had begun an ordeal.''
And it is that ordeal that Close dramatizes on the small screen tonight. It is a cool, nicely controlled performance about a wife and mother of four who is challenging the Pentagon's policy against gays serving openly in the armed forces.
When she appeared before TV writers, and was quizzed about the Clinton Administration's ``don't-ask, don't-tell'' policy on gays in uniform, Cammermeyer pulled no punches.
``The policy is pretty stupid.''
She didn't stop there.
``Why should one group of people be asked to serve in silence when serving their country?''
Cammermeyer did not go quietly into the night when a discharge was forced on her, ironically with the words ``You are a great American.'' She sued, won reinstatement in June, 1994, and expects to finish out 30 years in uniform later this year.
Gone are her dreams of making general. Back in uniform, Cammermeyer is hardly holding back criticism of the Pentagon. She hopes for the day, the colonel said, when people can join the military without fearing that their lives and careers will be challenged just because they are homosexuals.
To play a person who holds the torch so high was darn near irresistible, said Close. It was no piece of cake.
Close worked in the four weeks of filming in Vancouver between the time she closed in ``Sunset Boulevard'' in Los Angeles and opened the musical on Broadway.
Co-executive producer Barbra Streisand talked Close into taking the role and also talked Cammermeyer into permitting her story to be told on TV.
``I saw it as important story and I saw it as a challenge to me as an actor,'' said Close. ``I wanted to get the military aspect of playing Grethe just right. I wanted to wear the uniform right. I wanted to salute right.
``She had an eagle eye about how correct things should be, such as where the buttons are placed and where the uniform is folded. I observed how she stood, how she did little things with her face and body. I never intended to mimic her. I hoped to capture the essence of this woman despite the fact she's a good foot and a half taller than I am.''
The Kiss comes and goes quickly. The idea, said director Jeff Bleckner, was to make the kiss tender, but more than a kiss between sisters. The kissing became less self-conscious with each take, said Close.
It would be a pity, said Close, if people refused to watch tonight because they might be outraged at the sight of two mature women kissing. ``I hope there is no such terrible prejudice,'' she said. ``We've made a fine movie that will keep people from flipping to another channel.''
So, who wants to flip? ``Melrose Place'' is over at 9. by CNB