ONE KILL

Susan Granger’s review of “ONE KILL” (SHOWTIME TV MOVIE – Sunday, Aug. 6th)

As relevant as today’s headlines, this thriller, which airs on SHOWTIME Sunday at 8 P.M., exposes the double standard women face in the military. A highly decorated Marine Corps Captain (Anne Heche), a single mother, discovers she’s up against the “good ole boy” network when she’s awakened at gunpoint by an intruder, wrestles free, then shoots and kills her assailant. While a local court rules the incident justifiable homicide, the military views it differently since the man (Sam Shepard) she killed was a Major and a war hero. A military prosecutor calls it “premeditated murder” when it’s disclosed that the Captain and the married Major had an affair. So her future is in the hands of an attorney (Eric Stoltz), the son of a highly regarded military officer. Through flashbacks, we learn what really happened and the chain of events that led up to it. “One Kill” presents a true moral dilemma – one that viewers will find quite provocative. Writer Shelley Evans and director Christopher Menaul reveal that the Captain was in an untenable position. The Major was opposed changes in military policies that allow women to lead battle units, yet in a rigged special training exercise, the Captain’ s unit wins. Intrigued by her courage and stamina, the obsessed Major begins his own personal assault, even stalking her, although it’s against regulations for them to fraternize. One quibble: physically, Anne Heche is too tiny and thin; her size works against her believability. On the Granger Made-for-TV Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “One Kill” is an intelligent, stylish, suspenseful 7. As proven with the recent case of Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy vs. Maj. Gen. Larry Smith, military women have come to realize that if you have the courage to report sexual harassment, you can expect to be doubted and persecuted.

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