Young men in uniform, training for war.
That’s what all military forces contain, right? Despite there being any obvious conflict, there is a narrative told again and again of a strapping young teen hoping to defend his homeland by joining up to fight.
A new show on Netflix, Boots, takes this and adds another, personal layer.
There’s a moment in Boots where the recruits stand in perfect formation, sweat dripping down their faces, every muscle tense. This is a story on what happens when strength and shame share the same skin.
The eight-part series stars 13 Reasons Why’s Miles Heizer as Ellis French, a shy, closeted teen who signs up for boot camp to prove he is not weak. His mother, played by Vera Farmiga, pops pills and offers judgment instead of affection, pushing him toward a world that feeds off discipline and denial.
Created by Andy Parker and based on Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine, Boots does not sugar-coat the military.
The drills are harsh, the language cruel, and the pressure to “man up” is constant. But inside all the shouting there is something tender. French finds an unlikely bond with his instructor, Sgt Hall, played by Max Parker, who somehow manages to yell, mentor and protect him all at once.
The show captures contradiction. It is about belonging and punishment, masculinity and fear, how a place built to strip you of individuality can accidentally hand you a sense of self. It is tender in the moments it should not be, like when Ellis helps another recruit shave his head in silence, or when a locker-room glance lingers longer than it should.
For SA viewers, the narrative of a gay soldier may feel very, very familiar.
The story mirrors Moffie, Oliver Hermanus’s 2019 film based on André Carl van der Merwe’s semi-autobiographical novel about a young conscript in the SA Defence Force during apartheid. That story was recently reimagined for the stage, premiering in London in 2024 before making its SA debut at the Baxter Theatre this year. Like Boots, it explores how young men are shaped and broken by systems that demand obedience and punish difference. I was privileged enough to watch the stage adaptation, starring David Viviers, and it was phenomenal.
It is easy to forget the past, even one as recent as the 1970s, but art reminds us to look back and learn, or forgive.
Now back to the US.
Filmed partly on a real Marine base in New Orleans, Boots used actual drill instructors and military consultants to recreate boot camp as accurately as possible. Heizer reportedly completed part of the real training programme, breaking down on his first day and later saying it gave him a new respect for anyone who survives it.
Maybe we all need a final push of grit and heart to reach the end of the year. And a reminder that brutality only breeds monsters and masculinity needs tenderness, heart and compassion right now.
