I just saw this for the first time last night on a cable movie channel, and I was amazed to see that it was originally a TV-movie, which means a budget the tenth of what a feature would have cost. The production values looked like a studio had spent some fairly serious money to make it. Much more important, the tone kept me thinking of "A Few Good Men" from beginning to end. I agree with all the good things other reviewers have written, and rate it one notch higher at eight.
If I have a quibble, it's with the title, which, thanks to IMDb, I now know is the title of the book the film's based on. It refers to a certain scene and God knows it's appropriate, but I might never have clicked the remote to record it if the menu hadn't had a sentence telling me it was about the USS Iowa incident. Otherwise, I would have thought it was about a concentration camp, a Mexican prison, or, worst of all, some woman's especially awful marriage on Lifetime. There's some discussion on the message board about the word "hell" in the title, referring to that scene, but it also occurred to me that, like "Fair Game" did with the Valerie Plame case, it could also refer to what The Power Structure will put you through if you stand up to it.
If I have a quibble, it's with the title, which, thanks to IMDb, I now know is the title of the book the film's based on. It refers to a certain scene and God knows it's appropriate, but I might never have clicked the remote to record it if the menu hadn't had a sentence telling me it was about the USS Iowa incident. Otherwise, I would have thought it was about a concentration camp, a Mexican prison, or, worst of all, some woman's especially awful marriage on Lifetime. There's some discussion on the message board about the word "hell" in the title, referring to that scene, but it also occurred to me that, like "Fair Game" did with the Valerie Plame case, it could also refer to what The Power Structure will put you through if you stand up to it.