Heartbreak Ridge

Further exploring and expanding his iconic screen persona, producer-director-actor Clint Eastwood stars as Tom Highway, a Marine Corps Sgt. who drinks too much and is constantly getting in trouble. Nearing retirement age, having alienated most of his superiors, Highway asks to end his career where it began and is transferred to perform gunnery sergeant duties in his old outfit. There, the small reconnaissance platoon he is to train proves to be a group of lazy malcontents who feel that they've been duped by the slick military advertising on television. Earning the admiration of these young hotshots by besting them physically and mentally at every turn, Highway proceeds to whip them into a self-respecting fighting unit that knows how to work as a team. This newfound purpose is tested when Highway and his men are sent off to a small Caribbean island to rescue American medical students from a hostile Marxist government backed by Cuban troops.