<p>Former Navy Sec and '68 USNA grad Jim Webb comments on the movie, “Annapolis.” <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801376.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801376.html</a></p>
<p>Washington Post - Reliable Source
Sunday, January 29, 2006; C03</p>
<p>“This is going to be painful,” James Webb is saying as the theater lights go down.</p>
<p>That’s why we invited you, we’re thinking.</p>
<p>The movie is “Annapolis,” a glossy Hollywood drama about the struggles of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, climaxing in an epic boxing match known as the Brigade Boxing Championships.</p>
<p>Webb, an author and highly decorated Marine combat veteran, graduated from Annapolis in 1968 and oversaw it as the famously outspoken Navy secretary during the Ronald Reagan years. A boxer for eight years, he even fought against classmate Oliver North in the championships. But Webb also knows movies. He has a writing credit on “Rules of Engagement,” starring Samuel L. Jackson , and is working on a film with Rob Reiner (while mulling a run against Virginia’s U.S. Sen. George Allen ). Yet Webb’s own academy story – 1981’s popular novel “A Sense of Honor” – languished in development hell and has never made it to the screen.</p>
<p>Just the man to watch “Annapolis” with.</p>
<p>“You remember ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’?” Webb whispers as the opening credits flash. “This sounds a lot like that, and my book.”</p>
<p>The movie starts. A young riveter dreams of attending the academy. A Navy officer tracks him down in the shipyard: Last-minute opening , he says. Show up tomorrow. Yeah, right, like that would happen! We glance at Webb, who is placidly watching the screen.</p>
<p>14 minutes in: A regal yet steely-eyed company commander stalks onto the screen. We know immediately he will push our hero to the brink. Webb snorts: “Enter Lou Gossett !” The plebes are abused. A fat kid struggles through an obstacle course. Our hero gives an incorrect answer, and dinner is withheld from his entire company as punishment.</p>
<p>35 minutes: First boxing scene. Our hero throws an impulsive wild punch. Webb perks up. “Ever read ‘Fields of Fire’ [his acclaimed Vietnam novel]? There’s a scene in boot camp – pugilistics instead of boxing – that’s very similar.” He adds: “That’s not a complaint.”</p>
<p>43 minutes: The fat kid bids farewell to the hero before Christmas leave. “He’s gonna kill himself!” we predict. Webb nods: “I was thinking that in the O-course scene.”</p>
<p>47 minutes: The plebes return after leave. Fat kid still alive. Oh, well. More stuff happens. The girl midshipman says academy men don’t consider women their equals. Plebes do push-ups in drenching rain. The girl punches the hero and they almost kiss. Boxing, boxing, boxing. A plot twist we predicted: “Ka-ching,” says Webb.</p>
<p>100 minutes: The End.</p>
<p>“It’s pretty good!” Webb exclaims. “Kind of hokey . . . but pretty good. They push all the buttons. You got ‘Rocky,’ you got the dad thing, you got the against-the-odds thing.”</p>
<p>Huh. So, no major inaccuracies?</p>
<p>“They got everything wrong!” The uniforms, the training, the jargon, the way the mids were allowed to battle each other bloody in the boxing ring, the presence of a large shipyard in sight of the academy. But, says Webb, “it’s a movie.”</p>
<p>Huh. “Hey, did you know they mention you in the press kit?” we ask. Right here: On the list of famous Brigade boxing champions. Webb looks, and chuckles again.</p>
<p>“I never won the Brigades!”</p>