Restrepo -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Bother ....
If Restrepo, an excellent documentary about the US forces in the Korengal valley of Afghanistan is playing in your neck of the woods, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It's a straight forward look at what it was like to be the men at Outpost Restrepo for 15 months. It doesn't wave a flag. It simply provides excellent insight into what the US is up against in Afghanistan, and it's got some very interesting character studies.
It's also got some scenes of homoeroticism that make it pretty damn clear that Generation Kill and The Hurt Locker really weren't inventing the sort of things that bored and stressed out soldiers say/do to blow off steam.
1) A couple of the men rotate down into the base camp for a day or two. It's a chance to get a hot meal and a shower. Sterling and a few of the other guys pounce the cook and relentlessly tickle him while making jokes about how he's so hot they can't help it.
2) A wet behind the ears PFC is put up to wrestling another guy -- apparently the platoon champ. It's spoken about in terms of "losing his cherry." (We also find out that he's a virgin.)
3) The "disco scene" -- a prank played on a guy who's about to walk into the bunk area -- is 3 guys slam dancing in a space that looks to be about 5x5 to a remix of "touch me, I want to feel your body". This is a scene that is SO GAY that it was the first thing my husband talked about when we got out of the theatre.
4) A bit of chop busting about one of the guys being pretty enough that, back home, I'd fuck him.
Wikipedia entry on Restrepo, which has a link to an article by Sebastian Junger about life in Restrepo, the official film site, and several reviews, more than one of which mentions the ZOMG! Ho-Yay! in the documentary.
It's a straight forward look at what it was like to be the men at Outpost Restrepo for 15 months. It doesn't wave a flag. It simply provides excellent insight into what the US is up against in Afghanistan, and it's got some very interesting character studies.
It's also got some scenes of homoeroticism that make it pretty damn clear that Generation Kill and The Hurt Locker really weren't inventing the sort of things that bored and stressed out soldiers say/do to blow off steam.
1) A couple of the men rotate down into the base camp for a day or two. It's a chance to get a hot meal and a shower. Sterling and a few of the other guys pounce the cook and relentlessly tickle him while making jokes about how he's so hot they can't help it.
2) A wet behind the ears PFC is put up to wrestling another guy -- apparently the platoon champ. It's spoken about in terms of "losing his cherry." (We also find out that he's a virgin.)
3) The "disco scene" -- a prank played on a guy who's about to walk into the bunk area -- is 3 guys slam dancing in a space that looks to be about 5x5 to a remix of "touch me, I want to feel your body". This is a scene that is SO GAY that it was the first thing my husband talked about when we got out of the theatre.
4) A bit of chop busting about one of the guys being pretty enough that, back home, I'd fuck him.
Wikipedia entry on Restrepo, which has a link to an article by Sebastian Junger about life in Restrepo, the official film site, and several reviews, more than one of which mentions the ZOMG! Ho-Yay! in the documentary.