One Kill

A divorced female marine officer (Anne Heche) with two small children is charged for killing an senior officer. As the characters begin dealing with the matter of trial, the facts behind the case unfold piecemeal via flashback.

"One Kills" offers excellent performances. Anne Heche natural acting works great as the army officer having an affair with her superior, played by Sam Shepard, and Eric Stoltz is credible as her lawyer defending her against the military establishment.

The movie is well build up. sometimes a little slow and too dramatic.

Recommended for trial/drama flick fans and those interested in military courts-martial.

Certainly this film has the ring of truth about it, as it purports to be based on actual occurrences at a Marine base. It deals with the attempted cover-up by the local Marine commander of unacceptable conduct by a Marine major which resulted in his being shot to death by his former girl friend, a Marine captain. The man and woman had been lovers, but the captain attempted to break off the relation when she discovered her boy friend was married. He continued to stalk her, going so far as to fire his side arm in her direction at one time. Finally he broke into her home, attacked her with a knife, and was shot twice with her service pistol and killed. The civilian prosecutor ruled the killing self defense, but the Marines decided to charge the captain with murder. The major, you see, was a decorated hero from Vietnam, and an old friend of the commanding colonel at the Marine base. The captain, too, had made some enemies in her motor pool command, rejecting some male advances in a very butch style.

There is considerable psychological freight motivating and controlling the actions of the principal participants in this drama, which the very capable cast gets across nicely. The director and editor, however, seem determined to obscure the happenings as much as possible with frustrating flashbacks and shifting points of view. You're lucky if you know where you're at most of the time. Bear with them, though; it's a worthwhile story as the captain's court martial trial unfolds, and it seems every man's hand is against her, even her attorney at times.

The verdict? Well, after all, this is rather a suspense story, so you'll have to see for yourself. There is a kind of "pacifist" message folded into the film, but forget about that. Sure, "war is hell", but sometimes it can't be avoided. We'll need those Marines then, even if they aren't always the best champions of fair play internally. As Kipling says in his poem "Tommy Atkins":

"It's Tommy this and Tommy that, And Tommy wait outside. But, it's room for Mr. Atkins, When the troopship's on the tide."

I thought the movie was very good with fine performances from the cast. Ann Heche never a favorite of mine gives a haunting performance as the marine captain accused of murdering her lover aptly played by Sam Sheppard. Eric Stoltz gives his usual excellent performance as Ann Heche's defense attorney. I would watch this film again. What I would like to know is, what is the title of the song that is played at the end of the movie as the credits are rolling and who sings it.Any information would be deeply appreciated.

Excellent cast, story line, performances. Totally believable. I realize the close knit group that exemplifies the Marine Corps. But this movie brought fear to my heart. The marines let principles be damned. It seems that this film was based on real life incidents. It shows how difficult it is to go up against the establishment. Anne Heche was utterly convincing. Sam Shepard's portrayal of a gung ho Marine was sobering. And Eric Stoltz as her attorney was so deft balancing his loyalty to the Corp but also his loyalty to his client, while high above on his tightrope. He knew what his true course of action had to be. But he was pulled apart by his immersion in the Marine tradition, loyalty to the Corps above all else. I sat riveted to the TV screen. All in all I give this one a resounding 9 out of 10.

I knew ONE KILL from a while because it was uploaded on YouTube few days after the death of the lead Anne Heche, and since it stars one of the actors of which I try to watch all his available movies last April I finally gave it a try. If you wanna know why I wrote that summary please read the following text.

Captain Mary Jane O'Malley (Heche) is a divorced female marine officer that lives with her two children and starts an affair with Major Nelson Gray (Sam Shepard) but things turn bad when she discovers that he is married and when she wants to stop the relationship he won't accept it and Gray will force himself on O'Malley until she shoots at him when he forced his way in her house. After this the movie moves to the court room proceedings and we find out that there is a cover up by the base officers that refuse to let Gray's reputation on the ground until Captain Walter Randall (Eric Stoltz) comes to her defense.

The idea wasn't that bad, and the acting was good by all. But what ruined the movie were some of the actions by our lead. If Nelson Gray was married, why captain O'Malley had to start her relationship since it brought the consequences of Gray that didn't want to leave her and forced his way on her? Talk about hair-brained thinking. Second, I really hated that the superior officers didn't want to accept that she killed the Major for self defense up until Randall came to her defense.

Overall, a TV movie easy to be skipped because of the aforementioned reasons. Only of interest for fans of the stars or if you love to see movies that give bad messages and rot your brain.