Heavy military boot comp movies cannot help but draw comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. The groundbreaking drama showcased the great lengths that United States Military Academies sometimes go too far to “break” their recruits. Another great example is the under-appreciated but long-remembered G.I. Jane. Both films featured recruits that were not wanted (Full Metal Jacket with the obese, dimwitted Leonard “aka Gomer Pyle” Lawrence (played fantastically by Vincent D’Onofrio) in Full Metal Jacket or Demi Moore as the lone trial candidate of a U.S. Navy female integration program in G.I. Jane. A similar example is Men of Honor, the story of Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver.
The Inspection, the full-length feature debut of Elegance Bratton, doesn’t offer anything we haven’t seen in the movies mentioned above or so many others. Instead, a young person with unique circumstances surrounding his decision to enlist in the military is dealt with undue hardship by a supervisor who seems to have a problem with them, explicitly singling them because they are different, whether it be because they weren’t mentally/physically fit, a woman, a person of color, or, in the case of The Inspection, sexual orientation.
Jeremy Pope (One Night in Miami, The Ranger) stars as Ellis French, a homeless man who has just gotten out of jail and is looking for a purpose in life. Unfortunately, his relationship with his homophobic mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union – Bring it On, Top Five), is fractured so severely due to his being gay that she barely allows him inside her apartment, let alone allows him to spend the night. ‘ Not wanting to be a homeless nothing on the streets, Ellis enlists, going so far as to say that if he dies in battle, at least he’ll have died a hero.
So begins Ellis’s journey to boot camp, where he is quickly found out to be gay after being seen aroused in the group shower, fantasizing about Rosales (Raúl Castillo – Cha Cha Real Smooth, Army of the Dead), an instructor whom he has developed a crush. From that point forward, he becomes the victim of hazing and beatings by fellow recruits, ridicule, badgering during training drills, and a hostile environment created mainly through his ruthless, maniacal drill instructor, Leland Laws (Bokeem Woodbine – Riddick, Jason’s Lyric), who has it out for him. The other recruits can only embrace it if it’s reluctantly for some, knowing that he’s taking Laws’ attention.
While The Inspection is formulaic, it is more introspective than it might appear. Pope is great at Ellis, a man who wants to do right while understanding fully that he is who he is, and no amount of “toughening up” will change his sexual orientation, regardless of what his mother might believe. And just like the cruel instructors R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket), Viggo Mortensen (G.I. Jane), and Robert DeNiro (Men of Honor), there is no amount of torture that Laws can inflict that will cause this resilient young man to quit.
The movie’s highlights are the performances of Pope and Woodbine, especially when their two characters are in the same scene. Ellis struggles with wanting to fit in, whether in the military or society in general, despite what he believes are wishes to push him away. The other recruits also target a second prospective soldier because of his Muslim ties. It is something that Bratton effectively works into the arc of the story.
The Inspection is softer than the three movies I’ve identified as comparisons. Despite its 90% critics and audience scores, it is a film that did not even gross $500,000 domestically in its limited release. In contrast, Full Metal Jacket, G.I. Jane, and Men of Honor each grossed more than $40,000,000 at the box office, despite two (G.I. Jane and Men of Honor) earning much poorer Rotten Tomatoes scores. In addition, Pope’s effortless performance held the movie together, while Moore and Gooding Jr. struggled to maintain the same rapport with the audience.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9.5/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
83%
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- Full Metal Jacket
- Men of Honor
- G.I. Jane
- Moonlight
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