Fort Benning Rangers not pleased with script of movie 'Basic'

FORT BENNING - The upcoming movie ``Basic&#39;&#39; won&#39;t be a hit if Army Rangers at Fort Benning have their way. <br> <br> When a preliminary script for the movie, starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, wound up on the desk of the Army&#39;s chief of public affairs, it didn&#39;t draw any rave reviews. <br> <br> Major General Larry Gottard said in the script, the Rangers are portrayed as a band of heroin-shooting, cocaine-sniffing, race-baiting, murderous thugs. <br> <br> Gottard said, ``The script particularly is disturbing given that actual Rangers are on duty worldwide helping prosecute an international war on terrorism.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The film wraps up shooting later this week at the now-closed Cecil Naval Air Station Field in Jacksonville, Florida. <br> <br> The publicist for Intermedia Film Equities and Phoenix Pictures, Pat Story, said she&#39;s not sure those at Fort Benning have seen the entire script. <br> <br> Story said, ``The movie is fiction, and I don&#39;t think it shows any disrespect to the Rangers.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Ralph Puckett, a retired Army Ranger commander who lives in Columbus, said the script is definitely slanted against the Rangers. <br> <br> Puckett said he wrote a letter to Florida Governor Jeb Bush who was very complimentary of the film company when they arrived in Jacksonville last November. <br> <br> Puckett said, ``He undoubtedly didn&#39;t know the plot of the movie.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In the film, Travolta plays a Drug Enforcement Agency operative investigating the disappearance of several Ranger cadets and their drill instructor during an exercise at a training base in Panama.