DEMI TESTS STRENGTH; `G.I. JANE' LETS MOVIEGOERS JUDGE HER - AND ALL WOMEN'S - METTLE.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Demi Moore is no stranger to skull-rattling punches - remember the thumping critics meted out for ``The Scarlet Letter,'' ``The Juror'' and ``Striptease''?

But in her latest film foray, ``G.I. Jane,'' Moore's character takes a different kind of beating - a bloody pummeling meted out with deliberation by a male military officer making a point about women in combat.

And while the entertainment press focuses on ``G.I. Jane's'' window dressing - Moore's exposed scalp (probably the only bit of Moore's epidermis that hasn't been seen before) and her buff biceps - the public is likely to hone in on the hot-button issue of women on the front lines.

Indeed, whether ``G.I. Jane'' ends up a dud or box-office stud, one thing is certain: People will be talking about its interpretation of feminism and its contention that women belong on the front lines.

And that's just the kind of dialogue ``G.I. Jane'' screenwriter Danielle Alexander hopes to stir with her ripped-from-the-headlines action drama.

``Why is a woman not allowed to stand up to and hold a gun and defend the ideals of her nation?'' Alexander asks. ``Shouldn't she be allowed to? I think it's because America is not willing to see its young women blown apart because of our image of women as more delicate, frail and nurturers. I'm not saying every woman should be in combat, but if they can measure up physically, shouldn't they be allowed?

In the film's imagined scenario, Moore is a Naval intelligence officer who, as a test case, is invited to participate in the grueling training program of the elite Navy SEALs. Moore is eager to accept, because such field training will help her advance as a career officer.

Woman with a mission

If she endures the endless tests of physical strength and emotional will meant to separate the weak from the strong, the doors to women in combat will be opened. Or so she thinks.

Her SEAL mates, all male, are at first resentful of Moore's presence. She eventually earns their respect during a brutal knock-down, drag-'em-out fight with her training officer.

At the end of the fight, Moore pulls herself up and triumphantly yells a vulgarity that, because it crudely refers to a man's penis, is something only someone so equipped would say.

Alexandra says she wrote the scene - and the vulgarity - because she believes that's what would happen to a woman training for battle. To research it, she lived on a Navy SEALs base, she says.

``The question is: What extra fortitude would a woman have to have to be successful in that world? I believe she would win them over by survivorship. It's not about physical strength. She genuinely earns their respect by taking everything that's thrown at them plus one.''

Cmdr. Ron Morse of the Navy Office of Information in Los Angeles says withstanding hardship is indeed an element to success in tough military training.

However, he says the beating scene is pure fantasy. His office received an early version of the script and found it an inaccurate portrayal of Navy training. Therefore, the Navy refused to cooperate with ``G.I. Jane's'' makers. No filming was permitted on bases and no Navy equipment was lent out.

The beating was one of the most glaring inaccuracies, Morse says. Instructors are not permitted to beat up pupils, even when training them to withstand torture. Morse himself endured grueling SERE training (Survival Evasion Rescue Evacuation) during the Vietnam War and says the experience ``was not pleasant at all, but I was never hit or put in a situation where my physical well-being was in danger.''

Aiming for realism

Alexandra acknowledges the Navy's position, but says her research shows a woman captured behind enemy lines would have to survive in a POW camp without prompting paternal - and potentially dangerous - responses from fellow soldiers. Therefore, she would have to learn to take a beating.

``The Department of Defense did not officially give us the boats and the toys and give their stamp of involvement. And, of course, there are no women Navy SEALs at the present time. However, the Navy privately opened its doors to me as a writer so I could do my best to get it right.''

She also says that her experience as a woman competing in the male-dominated world of screenwriting has taught her that women are accepted by men when they prove that they are tougher.

``Los Angeles is a very tough town. It's a daily struggle to work at the level I hope to work. My definition of surviving is having the guts to pick yourself up each time you get kicked down.''

An early buzz

So far, the film (directed by Ridley Scott, of ``Thelma & Louise'' and ``Blade Runner'' fame) has had several screenings nationwide and has won accolades from at least one feminist organization. Janice Rocco, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization of Women, says she found the film an exhilarating affirmation of female strength.

``It was very empowering for me to watch the film and watch this woman do her job, to overcome every hurdle thrown at her,'' Rocco says. ``Women need to have an opportunity to succeed (in combat training) or to fail. They just should have the opportunity.''

Rocco says she was also drawn to the film's timeliness: Earlier this week, 31 female cadets joined the ranks of freshman at the Virginia Military Institute, the first women at the military college in its 158-year history. Their presence on campus prompted a ``prank'' involved dead rats accompanied with the sign ``Save the Males.''

Yet with women training at places such as VMI and the Citadel, the issue of whether they should use their training in the field will heat up, says Rocco.

Life and death

As for Alexandra's contention the the public isn't ready to send women to war, Rocco says: ``For most people it's probably not a whole lot more disturbing to see women come home in body bags than young men in body bags. We're probably at a stage that the public would accept it if was convinced women could do the job.''

Rocco also suspects that the Department of Defense's denouncement of the film is politically motivated.

``There have been complaints that the movie is not realistic. My position is that it's more realistic than films that are supposed to be based on true stories. Some people are trying to hold this film to a different standard because they oppose the notion of women in the military.''

The screenplay also addresses the concept of ``gender norming,'' or making allowances for a woman's physical differences in an attempt to level the playing field. For example, during an exercise in which the troops must scale a fence, Moore is allowed to use a step, presumably because she's shorter.

She is also permitted to have hair, as long as she keeps it off her collar.

But Moore's character rejects the easier route and demands to be treated like a man, even going so far as shaving off her hair and bunking with the boys. Alexandra says the character's refusal of such gender-norming considerations doesn't mean she wants to be treated like a man but an equal.

``A woman can survive childbirth - what's tougher than that? To me, Demi does not become a man, she is the best of woman. She becomes a teammate.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) TOUGH-MINDED `G.I. Jane' guns for controversy

(2) Demi Moore's portrayal of an intelligence officer undergoing Navy SEAL training gains added realism from her shaved head and the physical preparation she underwent for the role.

(3) Teamwork in overcoming physical challenges is demanded of SEAL recruits.