I definitely need to leave a review but it was excellent. I’m really curious as to what becomes of Sullivan and I’m even more interested about everything that happened in Guam. I liked the glimpse into the backstory but clearly there’s more there.
Thank you for writing about this. I’ll post my take in a few days. I was going to ask you about Full Metal Jacket/Short timers too. It’s a Kubrick film with bootcamp that feels very accurate and I didn’t leave that film thinking patriotism or praise of the Marines. In Boots, there is still a feeling of marine pride here and there. I’m wondering why boots went this route.
I think for a couple of reasons. Greg Cope White’s The Pink Marine isn’t a heavy book—it’s more a “fish out of water” story than an exposé. He doesn’t romanticize it, but he’s proud of what he accomplished and finds humor in the experience. The military films of the ’80s (Full Metal Jacket, Platoon) were the opposite—angry, political, meant to indict the whole system. The “Peace with Honor” narrative of Vietnam was being dismantled, not defended. Hasford’s The Short-Timers (which Full Metal Jacket is based on) came straight from a combat correspondent who’d seen it firsthand, and Oliver Stone was never exactly apolitical either. You were supposed to be disgusted when the credits rolled.
And, maybe it’s cynical, but Netflix still has to sell it. A show that really confronted how gay men or other minorities are treated in the Marines wouldn’t get the same audience. The Inspection tried that—critics loved it, but it barely made half a million at the box office. The version with hot guys running around in camo and the occasional bare backside? That’s the one that sells.
great analysis and commentary. Strangely Full Metal Jacket also held an erotic charge when i fiest saw it as a teen but it was also brutal and frightening. This is yet another fanciful reimagining of a world that never existed much the same way Bridgerton presents a utopian view of Regency era Britain that is enlightened regarding race and sexuality. it's fine if people want to imagine such fantasies as long as they don't believe they did/do exist. and I still think think The Inspection movie (also on Netflix) starring Jeremy Pope offers more truth than Boots attempts.
I definitely need to leave a review but it was excellent. I’m really curious as to what becomes of Sullivan and I’m even more interested about everything that happened in Guam. I liked the glimpse into the backstory but clearly there’s more there.
Thank you for writing about this. I’ll post my take in a few days. I was going to ask you about Full Metal Jacket/Short timers too. It’s a Kubrick film with bootcamp that feels very accurate and I didn’t leave that film thinking patriotism or praise of the Marines. In Boots, there is still a feeling of marine pride here and there. I’m wondering why boots went this route.
I think for a couple of reasons. Greg Cope White’s The Pink Marine isn’t a heavy book—it’s more a “fish out of water” story than an exposé. He doesn’t romanticize it, but he’s proud of what he accomplished and finds humor in the experience. The military films of the ’80s (Full Metal Jacket, Platoon) were the opposite—angry, political, meant to indict the whole system. The “Peace with Honor” narrative of Vietnam was being dismantled, not defended. Hasford’s The Short-Timers (which Full Metal Jacket is based on) came straight from a combat correspondent who’d seen it firsthand, and Oliver Stone was never exactly apolitical either. You were supposed to be disgusted when the credits rolled.
And, maybe it’s cynical, but Netflix still has to sell it. A show that really confronted how gay men or other minorities are treated in the Marines wouldn’t get the same audience. The Inspection tried that—critics loved it, but it barely made half a million at the box office. The version with hot guys running around in camo and the occasional bare backside? That’s the one that sells.
great analysis and commentary. Strangely Full Metal Jacket also held an erotic charge when i fiest saw it as a teen but it was also brutal and frightening. This is yet another fanciful reimagining of a world that never existed much the same way Bridgerton presents a utopian view of Regency era Britain that is enlightened regarding race and sexuality. it's fine if people want to imagine such fantasies as long as they don't believe they did/do exist. and I still think think The Inspection movie (also on Netflix) starring Jeremy Pope offers more truth than Boots attempts.
I’m sitting down to watch The Inspection now Jerry! It’s not on Netflix anymore, but is on Showtime (or the upgraded Hulu or Paramount+ plans)