Seems mostly marines watched and care to comment on this TV pilot, I guess anyone sensible turned off before half of it had passed. I can't comment on its documentary qualities, knowing very little about details of Marine training, so I will only say how it play as a movie. (here be SPOILERS - but spoilers of what, really?)
Well... It plays as a simplistic recruiting film. Starship Troopers without irony or even a plot. A handful of characters from a batch of male recruits and two from a group of female recruits undertake their US Marine basic training. One guy kills himself, all the others persist through the hardships and pass their tests. All shed tears at the final ceremony and as we leave the tough, big, African-American drill instructor walks the empty barracks with a very slight smile lighting his otherwise stony features.
That's the plot outline. For drama we're invited to a series of highlights where the personal problems for some of the characters are displayed. Both recruits and problems are probably cast to match the statistics; half or more are non-Caucasian, mainly worker or immigrant's kids with few opportunities to get by in the land of the free. Did I mention this is a patriotic show to entice kids to join the US army? Well, the various character highlights are probably intended to illustrate how it's a great character-building experience that really puts you ahead in wisdom, strength and stamina. There is however not much logic or consequence to the scenes - they just follow one after another to fill the itinerary of points the army recruiters wanted to make.
Two scenes stand out as particularly bizarre:
(1) Instructor (afro-am as mentioned) sits them down to discuss "race and ethnicity." There have been some slurs from some white boys. He states that the Marines are not about race, asks for comments. One guy gets up and says (referring to himself) "This recruit is Jewish, sir!" End of scene. Yes, end of scene! One gets a feeling there was more, but it was edited out. The "I'm Jewish" bit just *had* to be left in because at the decoration and crying scene near the end, the instructor's personal words of encouragement and pride to the guy are "Mazel Tov", and this was so good they didn't want to cut just there. What do I know. As discussion of race and ethnicity issues in the US go, it's a little thin.
(2) (SPOILERS) We get to view an afro-am recruit quite a lot. His dad once was a Marine, and decorated for bravery in Vietnam. Yes Siree. But now he's in jail. On death row, to boot. For killing a man, no details given. The kid so wants his father to see him in Marine outfit. The father is set to be killed halfway through the film, but this is postponed. In the final scene in the film (after decoration scene) we see the dad strapped in his chair, about to get a lethal injection. Outside a glass wall, the kid, in Marine uniform, his mother, and a friend from boot camp (the spoiled rich kid who found himself and made it even though he just wanted away from his dad). The father smiles slightly, apparently to die a more-or-less happy man. End of film. This might be an outstanding moment in propaganda history (in spite of the plodding acting). So many troublesome features of US society put on direct display, in the hope that they will thereby just vanish. All racialism in police and judiciary, the gruesome record of killing its citizens (and children, and mentally disabled, and innocents), all that just goes away. The kid made it through the Marines' basic training, now he's ready to be decorated in the next Vietnam, and a prisoner can die happy.
My oh my, why didn't I just go to sleep.
Well... It plays as a simplistic recruiting film. Starship Troopers without irony or even a plot. A handful of characters from a batch of male recruits and two from a group of female recruits undertake their US Marine basic training. One guy kills himself, all the others persist through the hardships and pass their tests. All shed tears at the final ceremony and as we leave the tough, big, African-American drill instructor walks the empty barracks with a very slight smile lighting his otherwise stony features.
That's the plot outline. For drama we're invited to a series of highlights where the personal problems for some of the characters are displayed. Both recruits and problems are probably cast to match the statistics; half or more are non-Caucasian, mainly worker or immigrant's kids with few opportunities to get by in the land of the free. Did I mention this is a patriotic show to entice kids to join the US army? Well, the various character highlights are probably intended to illustrate how it's a great character-building experience that really puts you ahead in wisdom, strength and stamina. There is however not much logic or consequence to the scenes - they just follow one after another to fill the itinerary of points the army recruiters wanted to make.
Two scenes stand out as particularly bizarre:
(1) Instructor (afro-am as mentioned) sits them down to discuss "race and ethnicity." There have been some slurs from some white boys. He states that the Marines are not about race, asks for comments. One guy gets up and says (referring to himself) "This recruit is Jewish, sir!" End of scene. Yes, end of scene! One gets a feeling there was more, but it was edited out. The "I'm Jewish" bit just *had* to be left in because at the decoration and crying scene near the end, the instructor's personal words of encouragement and pride to the guy are "Mazel Tov", and this was so good they didn't want to cut just there. What do I know. As discussion of race and ethnicity issues in the US go, it's a little thin.
(2) (SPOILERS) We get to view an afro-am recruit quite a lot. His dad once was a Marine, and decorated for bravery in Vietnam. Yes Siree. But now he's in jail. On death row, to boot. For killing a man, no details given. The kid so wants his father to see him in Marine outfit. The father is set to be killed halfway through the film, but this is postponed. In the final scene in the film (after decoration scene) we see the dad strapped in his chair, about to get a lethal injection. Outside a glass wall, the kid, in Marine uniform, his mother, and a friend from boot camp (the spoiled rich kid who found himself and made it even though he just wanted away from his dad). The father smiles slightly, apparently to die a more-or-less happy man. End of film. This might be an outstanding moment in propaganda history (in spite of the plodding acting). So many troublesome features of US society put on direct display, in the hope that they will thereby just vanish. All racialism in police and judiciary, the gruesome record of killing its citizens (and children, and mentally disabled, and innocents), all that just goes away. The kid made it through the Marines' basic training, now he's ready to be decorated in the next Vietnam, and a prisoner can die happy.
My oh my, why didn't I just go to sleep.