Serving In Silence – The Margarethe Cammermeyer
Story (1994 Telefilm)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Telefilm: B
In 1989,
Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer casually admitted that she was a lesbian, a
homosexual and all after serving in the military for a quarter century. With an extreme Right Wing administration in
place with all kinds of new restrictions, the military went after this medical
Army veteran and did whatever they could to get rid of her. Jeff Bleckner’s Serving In Silence – The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995) is the
still powerful, relevant, groundbreaking telefilm about the woman who loved the
system, even when she had to take it on.
Glenn
Close gives yet another great performance as Margarethe, involved in a serious
relationship with Diane (Judy Davis) and juggling her children
post-divorce. Mind you, this is a woman
who served and survived the insanity of Vietnam, so to do this to her is not
just about a quarter century of peacetime service. And she was always loyal and hard working all
that time either way! It is much deeper
and Alison Cross’ teleplay is very well written and delivers a powerful
portrait of the people and events that shaped this underappreciated event that
in part led to the mixed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. William Converse-Roberts, Jan Rubes, Colleen
Flynn, Kevin McNulty, Eric Dane, Molly Parker, Trevor St. John and a very young
Ryan Reynolds co-star.
The 1.33
X 1 image is good for its age, as shot in 35mm film, TV Safe or not. The cinematography of Glen MacPherson raises
this above the usual TV fare and is one of the reasons he soon moved on to
larger feature film projects. The
performance of the film in this digital High Definition transfer more than
speaks for itself. All filmed telefilms
should look this good. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo has no surrounds, but is clean and clear for its age, especially for
a TV production. David Shire’s score is
not bad. Extras include a making of
featurette, 1996 GLAAD Media Awards piece and the film’s Hollywood
premiere. This is one of the great TV
movies of the 1990s and reminds us that the best telefilms are not seen enough,
made enough and are not available on DVD enough. Let’s hope this helps to change that.
- Nicholas Sheffo
