A 30-year-old satirist comedy War film with a 12% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is surprisingly realistic, according to a retired U.S. Army sergeant. Throughout the history of cinema, there have been a multitude of war films that have captured the realism of combat and what life was like during times of major conflict across the world. This includes everything from historically accurate WWII films like patton and Letters from Iwo Jimafor those surrounding other conflicts, such as Platoon (set during the Vietnam War) and Black Hawk down (set during the Battle of Mogadishu).
Some of the most historically accurate war films overall have also left an important mark on audiences, such as Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed film Saving Private Ryanor by Richard Attenborough A bridge too far. Often these lauded films are dramatic takes on wartime, although some war comedies have also been made over the years. This includes Good morning Vietnam starring Robin Williamsand 1970s Catch-22based on the novel of the same name. While these war comedies were applauded by critics and audiences alike, one negatively received one managed to capture elements of the Army with surprising accuracy.
In The Army now offers a shockingly realistic look at U.S. Army training
A real sergeant analyzed scenes from the film
[R]Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Lamont Christian praised In the army now for having accurate portrayals of what basic training is like.
In the army now is a 1994 war comedy film directed by Daniel Petrie Jr. and starring Pauly Shore as Private First Class Bones Conway. The film follows Bones and his friend Jack (Andy Dick) who decide to join the US Army Reserves. hoping to make money, a decision that ends up sending them to Africa after Libya’s invasion of Chad. The film follows their training as they are forced to become organized and efficient members of the military. The film holds a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 44% from audiences, indicating that it was almost universally panned.
Surprisingly, when speaking with Insider during your series How real is this?, Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Lamont Christian praised In the army now for having accurate portrayals of what basic training is like. From 12:59 he analyzed scenes of the soldiers being woken up and forced to exercise outdoors, Christian praised the film for the way the soldiers were woken up and the grass exercises they had to do. He especially praised Lynn Whitfield’s Sergeant Ladd for his attention to detail. Overall, he gave the film a 7 out of 10 for realism. Check out what Christian said below:
This opening scene here? This is quite realistic. The Whistle, at that time, was part of the uniform and was used to do exactly what this Sergeant Instructor was doing, which is to wake him up. There are periods when certain training methods are basically abandoned. Lights will always be one of those ways to wake them up.
What they are doing now, commonly called Grass Drills or Gorilla Drills. Many of these exercises and workouts that we did over the years were good for building stamina and stamina, but they were really full of exercises that would actually create injuries. We in the military, specifically the Army, have moved over the years to create physical training that reduces injuries. Now the good thing is: you see they are wearing their winter physical training uniform. And what I’m going to tell you is that this was definitely one of the exercises we would do to warm up because it would be very cold.
Lynn Whitfield’s character as Drill Sergeant is exactly right when she’s talking about the uniform line. One of the things basic combat training is supposed to do is help a civilian transform into a soldier. And the same happens with the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force. In this case, it was just a show queue. But everything else in the background, you could see the uniformity in the way the wall cabinets were assembled, the PT uniforms hanging on the sides, the cubicle itself. The bunk beds, the way they were made. All of this uniformity, and the ability to pay attention to detail, is what will help a soldier do better as he progresses through the military and begins to learn more complicated tasks.
So I would have to say that everything in this clip, in boot camp and in the basic training environment, was about a 7. It was realistic for that period in our military.
Our Take on the Army’s Surprisingly Realistic Basic Training Now
The film still has a central basis in reality
Although In the army now is not considered one of the best war comedies of all time, the comedy the film apparently has a lot more realism when it comes to basic training than the negative reviews give it credit for. Even if it’s not as memorable as better films like Hot shots! and M*A*S*H, the film even offers some level of honesty around what the army is really like. This makes it memorable in its own right, as despite not having many redeemable qualities in the eyes of most critics and audiences, the film still stands out for the realism it brings to the table.
Source: Insider/YouTube