“It’s a good old-fashioned drama about betrayal and conspiracy, along with lots of sexual tension”.

The producers of the film, meanwhile, found it hard to see beyond Travolta; without him, The General’s Daughter would have been a very different movie. Indeed, it mightn’t have been a movie at all. “The whole process moved rather quickly once we got John on the picture,” admits Neufeld. “He added his own touches: he brought an underlying humour to a rather dark story. Brenner is a maverick and John naturally has that same sensibility. The character is an iconoclast and isn’t particularly happy working within the system.”

West likewise finds it hard to imagine the part being played by another actor. “John’s the perfect rogue soldier who can wear a crumpled suit, have a sloppy haircut but still be believable as someone who has the power to arrest anybody he likes,” says the director. “His character is not spit-and-polish. He’s not buttoned-up or gung-ho macho: he’s more of a renegade. Brenner can be disrespectful and have fun being in the Army without being a real soldier. I tried to use John’s sense of humour as much as possible in this respect.”

But, although Travolta’s Brenner is the centre of The General’s Daughter, the movie as a whole boasts a cast that would have done justice to an ensemble picture. The top brass at Fort MacCallum are a veritable Who’s Who of top talent. Veteran James Cromwell as the old General combines the avuncular qualities of Farmer Hoggett in the Babe movies with the vicious streak that made him such a memorable villain in L.A. Confidential. James Woods is Colonel Moore, head of the Psych Op unit - an apparently perfect soldier with a very definite hidden agenda. Clarence Williams III plays General Campbell’s second-in-command, Colonel Fowler, as a man who will do anything to protect his boss (though mainly because he wants to take over when the General has gone). And Timothy Hutton rounds out the principal cast members as Colonel Kent, the base’s Provost Marshal who originally calls in Brenner to carry out the investigation.

Many of the scenes in The General’s Daughter were rewritten to take place at night, intensifying the mysterious, claustrophobic feel of the movie. “This is ominous Southern gothic,” says West. “The feeling is sinister and dark - which includes the locations and the weather. We’re in an extremely strict, old-fashioned world of rules with a rigid code of conduct where all the characters have something to hide. It’s hot and steamy and sticky. You’re never quite sure what will be uncovered during the investigation.

“The film is like a chess game - a mental game where the challenge is to keep all of these characters alive and give hints of who committed the murder or who might know about it without giving too much away and without cheating. We’ve combined wit, humour and tragedy, with a love story in the middle.

“Everybody’s got a mask on,” he concludes. “You’re never sure who the real person is.”