Basic Training

I went through basic in 1970. I joined the Air Force and went to Lackland. I guess I expected something similar here but hey, these guys were staying a week longer and going into armor and perhaps immediate combat. I got a four year deferment for college and was more like 22 than 18-19. You can plainly see these kids are not ready to be thrown in there with claymores and M16s. Some are close maybe. Most, I don't think so. All the propaganda, all the patriotism, all the positive thinking can't overcome the reality of this video. It's really hard to watch. HIs film called Meat showing animal slaughter, the hospital one, the mental ward stuff, all really hard to watch. Should we not avert our eyes? This is strong stuff and should be required viewing in school but won't because its reality is to awful to contemplate. Isn't that ironic?

In my entry on "Hospital", I discussed the ethical issues surrounding Wiseman's use of comedy to reflect a certain viewpoint. In that entry I mentioned a seen in which hospital workers are shown dealing with a young man who can't stop vomiting.

Another more complex and more disturbing case of Wiseman using comedy to illustrate a point is in "Basic Training", Wiseman's film of a U.S Army training center in Fort Knox, Kentucky. When we first see Private Hickman, he is unable to keep in step during drill practice, while the drill Sargent berates him. This scene is funny, but when we next see Hickman, he has unsuccessfully tried to kill himself by taking too many sleeping pills. Then we see him in council with the army Chaplain, who seems to completely ignore Hickman when the Private tries to confide in him. Instead the Chaplain accuses Hickman of "not really trying to get to the top." The last time we see Hickman, he is being used in a demonstration of how to sneak up behind an enemy and kill him by strangling him with his helmet strap. What starts out as being awkwardly funny ends up being a painfully sad example of the degrading nature of the military.

Is Hickman being exploited, or is it necessary to show his pain in order to illustrated the sometimes harsh nature of the Army? Even if we are meant to sympathize with Hickman, are we seeing too much? It gets to be horribly depressing, even though it makes its point strongly and clearly. Now we are back to the question of whether it is right for Wiseman to inject his own opinion into the film. It should be said that Basic Training shows examples of new recruits being successfully trained, but is Wiseman being ironic? After seeing Hickman, is it possible to feel good about any other soldier being integrated into a system that could easily destroy a person's spirit? Perhaps not, but should Wiseman be faulted for the fact that by showing all sides, the side that shows the army at its most questionable stands out in our memory and affects our judgment of the other scenes? Is that not our own feelings about human worth taking over?