In the 1980s, there were several coming of age movies for teenagers that have become classics talked about by Generation X kids like yours truly up to this day. Mention Ferris Bueller or the Breakfast Club, and you’ll get smile from anyone who remembers these films. There was a variant in the later where the drama level increased but the films were still as good and definitely something kids would talk about for years like the Dead Poets’ Society and Stand and Deliver. Later in the 1990s, we got more teen drama such as Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning and Dangerous Minds. However, none of those films designed to uplift kids could prepare anyone and this reviewer for Boot Camp.
Boot Camp is about little known aspect of American society where parents are convinced to send their troubled teens to detention centers located all over the place so their kids can be reformed and avoid possibly going to jail. Teenager Sophie (Mila Kunis) is sent to the detention center located on Fiji Island by her step father after insulting him in front of people one time too many. Sophie is reckless, but not necessarily a bad apple. Kidnapped and drugged, Sophie awakens on the island and mistreated along with other kids brought there to be brainwashed and released to society only when they are good. The Doctor (Peter Stormare) that runs the school has unorthodox methods bordering on the civil liberties and human rights of the kids. But Sophie’s boyfriend Ben (Gregory Smith) will not let her go so easily. He manages to get himself sent to the island and attempts a rescue operation.
This film is intended to denounce rehabilitation centers where kids are sent there by their parents. There are thousands of those centers in the United States and abuses such as rape and physical assaults are frequent. The movie makers definitely think such centers are bad and it seems that they associate them with born again Christians. This film angered me, but in a good way. I was angry at the rape scenes and the techniques used to pit one child against the other. It looked very close to what cults usually put people through, except in this case parents all over North America gladly sign away the life of their kids to such centers.
The plot of Boot Camp is simple. They try to show as much as possible and warn viewers that the story is based on a true story. Unfortunately, there are no extras in the DVD that can put such a film in perspective so that parents, their kids and society in general can be warned about what these schools do to kids. Live testimonies from actual victims and more on the story this film is based one would have increased its credibility. It will leave many people wondering if this is nothing but a dramatization and – sic – a Romanization of real life. Given that it has a typical ending where all hell breaks loose and all the bad guys are punished, the film will ultimately lose some of its impact as people will question its veracity.
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