# What 80's Flick Was This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871 "2011-05-14T03:36:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/1 "2011-05-14T03:36:29Z")
There was a popular movie in the early 1980’s where some military school is taken under siege by its students, IIRC. What was the title of this movie? Anyone recall? It’s bugging the crap out of me! (And, I hate being irregular! 😉 ) Oh, was it TAPS??? ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/2 "2011-05-14T03:40:15Z")
Of course, NOW this title comes to me! :rollseyes: Anyway, still…what other movies were popular around this time? I am thinking there was another movie along these lines, perhaps with a color in the title? No, it’s not Red Dawn. Any guesses to spark my (fickle) memory? P.S. I can’t tax the gray matter too hard…it’s dying fast enough as it is! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/3 "2011-05-14T03:58:28Z")
My first thought was 1991’s [_Toy Soldiers_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Soldiers_%281991_film%29), but it’s a bit different than the initial description: it’s not a military school, the siege comes from outside forces. Had the same “feel” for me when I saw it, though. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/4 "2011-05-14T04:02:37Z")
Outside of that time period, there was Toy Soldiers (1991) in which a [del]military[/del] school is under siege and the boys have to save it. There was If… from the 1960s (not to be confused with the similar film of L.F. Dibley’s) Maybe you were thinking of [Dress Gray](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090974/) (TV movie). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/5 "2011-05-14T04:06:52Z")
[_Taps_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taps_(film)). A military academy is scheduled to be closed, and the land used for condominiums. George C. Scott’s pistol goes off in a scuffle with some teenagers, and one of the teenagers is killed. The school is closed immediately. Scott has a heart attack after being arrested. The ate-up cadets take over the school and the National Guard is called to roust them out. . ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/6 "2011-05-14T04:08:16Z")
TAPS was about the exact scenario that you describe above; I remember it because I think it was the first R-rated movie I ever saw in the theater, and my friend’s (very conservative, Mormon) parent’s took us to see it, although I am sure my own parents never would have allowed it if they had known beforehand. I would have been around 12, I guess… (was a young Tom Cruise in TAPS?) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/7 "2011-05-14T04:11:36Z")
Now I have a song stuck in my head … “I am some kind of toy soldier/falling from my rocking horse/ I am breaking like a china doll/ I never though I’d fall.” Can’t seem to find it from those lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-80s-flick-was-this/581871/8 "2011-05-14T04:13:37Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > (was a young Tom Cruise in TAPS?) Yes. Also Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn. I saw _Taps_ (called _Tapto_ (sp?)) in Stockholm.