#SERVING IN SILENCE MOVIE#
#SERVING IN SILENCE FULL#

He objected to what he described as the movie's 'lesbian kiss' and its 'promotion of homosexuality.'Īt NBC, Rosalyn Weinman, the senior vice president for broadcast standards and practices, replied that the movie was 'an insightful and moving portrayal of one woman's struggle to save her career and hold her family together' and that the network 'will air the film as delivered.' Other than the kiss, there is little in the way of physical intimacy in the script. Hurwitz, chairman of the Family Defense Council, a conservative organization based in Queens. But that was enough to prompt a protest from Howard L. And Grethe and Diane are able to do that in a whole way, with more stress than a straight couple may or may not have.'Īs it happens, Ms. 'This extraordinarily positive expression can be seen to threaten their jobs, their status in society,' Ms. One point the group wanted to make was that homosexuals often pay a high price for falling in love. Cross and the colonel's friends and associates, as well as lesbian and gay leaders. 'Therefore,' she added, 'it really is adapted from but not reflective of my life.'Ĭhris Fisher, who collaborated on the autobiography, organized a meeting last spring between Ms. In condensing her 52 years to an hour and a half, the movie 'tried to make salient those aspects of my life that could also reach out to other people,' she said. 'When Neil Meron first told me that the script was evolving into what he said was a 'love story,' I was sort of aghast,' Colonel Cammermeyer said, recalling a conversation with one of the executive producers.

#SERVING IN SILENCE FULL#

In her 1994 autobiography, 'Serving in Silence,' she did not even give her companion's full name. Colonel Cammermeyer surrendered her privacy reluctantly. The subject herself was not so easily persuaded. Glances between the two women last just long enough to convey the romance running through their partnership. More important, it is about two women trying to fashion a relationship in the midst of upheaval.Īs depicted in the movie, theirs is a snug domestic bond, suffused with tenderness, capable of boiling over into quarrels. It is less about a high-ranking military officer than it is about a mother who is anchored to her sons and a daughter who is trying to cultivate her father's respect.

'It has captured the essence of our lives,' said Colonel Cammermeyer, who is called Grethe (pronounced Greta). Familiarity and ordinariness give it breadth. Rather, the movie is set in the kitchen and den and backyard, at a bedding shop, outside a Mormon temple, around the hearth. Even the hearing that led to her discharge takes only 10 minutes on screen. Cross pared vignettes that might have tempted another writer: Colonel Cammermeyer's childhood in Nazi-occupied Norway, her Vietnam tour at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, her marriage and divorce. The moment you get too many people on screen, you start to lose your focus.' That's one reason you naturally push the personal story forward. 'It doesn't work well to tell an epic story. 'Television tells emotional stories very well,' Ms. That became the motivation that held the movie together.' Her companion, Diane Divelbess, is played in the movie by Judy Davis. Cross said, 'I didn't understand why Grethe would have said anything at all. (She was reinstated last June by a Federal judge.) Instead, the script by Alison Cross highlights the love affair that awakened Colonel Cammermeyer's explicit awareness of her homosexuality and - as the movie tells it - emboldened her to declare herself a lesbian during a security-clearance interview in 1989, a declaration that led to her discharge three years later. Margarethe Cammermeyer did for most of her career, leaving her lesbianism unacknowledged and unspoken as she rose through Army ranks, winning a Bronze Star in Vietnam and later becoming chief nurse of the Washington State National Guard.īut neither service nor silent acquiescence is at the heart of 'Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story,' a 90-minute drama on NBC tomorrow night at 9, with Glenn Close in the title role.

Serving in silence