La fille d'un soldat ne pleure jamais

This is an sensitive exploration of the family and place. I noticed that Bill Willis was the only father in the picture, Billy and Francis did not have fathers. As a coming of age movie it really worked- for not only does Channe lose some of her innocence- it starts in the tree house- she also is able to accept her coming into adult status- as is evidenced by dumping the jock and losing some of her self-centeredness. I loved the character of Francis- boy/not sexually threatening- yet freeing for Channe by the fact of his flamboyance. Most of the parts of this movie fit together well- there is enough dichotomy- the mother can throw sand in the sadistic teacher's face, but she also crumbles at the death of an unborn child. Like us the characters are both strong and weak. At first I was bothered by the lack of reference to Vietnam- then I realized neither Billy nor Channe would be that affected like those of us who lived through that period. Most of all, Soldier's Daughter moved me to thinking how parents really influence their children. Any movie that foregoes bombs for thought is tops in my book.

Let the cyber reader beware! Reading the summary as well as the first User Comment about this movie, "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, which I viewed recently [2004], stunned a 4-letter word out of my mouth. These two viewers seem blissfully unaware of any knowledge of James Jones or his times. Nor do they show even a basic appreciation for film or narrative methods. If they cannot support their assertions about the film--that it is "emotionless" for instance--with some reference to accepted standards of drama or acting, we must assume that they know no better. My question is this: why does such an important site for movie-lovers accept such limited summations of films to remain on the site?

We got this video from library without knowing anything about it, except for the good reputations of the actors & director. The story rambles along following the lives of a young American girl & family living in Paris -- their adoption of a French boy, and how their lives change as the two grow up, eventually moving to North Carolina. The acting is good, and the story details are fascinating and off-beat (her teenage boy friend who sings great soprano opera, for example). Perhaps the father is too good to believe (from a kid's point of view) but it's a warm story that just kind of ends after the father dies. I can see why it might not be hugely popular, but it provides much food for thought and discussion within families as to choices, values, etc. Another plus - great location photography.

This is one of those plotless films that is more portraiture than story - which is to say it's like many French films. And in fact the film starts in French. Yes, things do happen, but episodically, by way of illustration , not in relation to any central, continual story.

What interested me in retrospect was WHY it's plotless, and what that says about the kind of portrait being drawn here.

The film is putatively about the protagonist, whom we see from childhood through adolescence. But in fact it is a carefully drawn study of that classic ideal, the Honest and Just Man. In this case, her father, based on the novelist James Jones (played by Kris Kristofferson, whose craggy face so suits the ideal in question that he hardly has to speak.)

Most of the incidents serve to demonstrate one of two points: that her father is deeply loving and understanding, and a bit unconventional (as is her mother), and that the family - which includes her adopted French brother - is close and loving despite being outsiders both in France and the US. We also see scattered images of her sexual awakening (which includes some early promiscuity), but even these in the end say more about her father than her.

The film's greatest strength is, in fact, this portrait of a family united in unconditional love, which endures even after the father's death. This image - certainly a profoundly tempting ideal to many of us - lingers after the film is over and is its most satisfying element. And in fact the film stayed with me well after I'd seen it, and I could recommend it to many viewers on that basis.

But… why is a film with four characters, rich in emotion, devoid of a central plot?

Because it's devoid of a central conflict. The father is relentlessly understanding and loving; the daughter is relentlessly grateful. Meanwhile , it's clear, even in this idealized portrait, that both parents drink (a lot). The daughter's attachment to another outsider at one school and her sexual acting out at another are never really examined. Yet they suggest something far more difficult and conflicted than a happy childhood. Certainly, the known effects of growing up with alcoholic are barely acknowledged, much less highlighted.

Perhaps this was a conscious decision, an attempt to avoid an aspect that of course is overdone in much contemporary drama. But certainly it points to SOME drama at the heart of this family, some conflict that might have more productively been examined and used as a guiding thread. (Even the simple fact of adoring a 'perfect' father has its own inherent conflicts, as was beautifully shown in "Eve's Bayou.")

So what we end up with is an ideal, and certainly the hunger for ideals is real enough. But here I felt too that it was a missed opportunity, an attempt to portray perfection at the expense of achieving resolution.

"A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" is a film which revolves around the proverbial institution known as family, but particularly, the relationship between a daughter and her father.

The film is divided into three separate sections: "Billy," which discusses the arrival of an adopted son into the family, "Francis," which revolves around the female protagonist, Channe's, best friend, and "Daddy."

In each of these categories, we are primarily subjected to the experiences of Channe, who is portrayed by the nubile, charismatic Leelee Sobieski. In them, we learn a little about her character, though strangely enough, not as much as we do about her father, whose unconditional positive regard for his daughter does much more than delineate the characteristics of the relationships among the members of the family.

The acting from the entire cast is superb, and from the actors' and actresses' demeanor emanates a very credible atmosphere. Yet the one element that truly grasped my attention was the editing, which with the exception of a couple of segments, added an extremely high element of poignancy to the story. James Ivory was obviously extremely assiduous with the film in this respect, and the final result consists of a strong narrative which appears somewhat terse, but knows exactly what quantity of what the viewer should be fed.

Cynical commentary has argued that this film is nothing short of tripe because it lacks a resolute motive--it consists of no conflict at all. All it is is disjointed scenes which serve no relevance to one another, and fail to tell a coherent story. The former statement in regards to the lack of conflict holds true, but the latter is what might be deemed questionable. Afterall, this is a story about the life of a family--and in a real family, few events from the past bear relevance to those of the present. "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" simply seeks to discuss the development of relationships in a family; events of high caliber are discussed thoroughly, while those of less importance portray to be all that they could ever be: memories.