Tag Archives: François Truffaut

Boots, halfway through: A Marine-shaped box

Posted on by Henry
The less morbid option for a Marine-shaped box

I’ve watched more of Boots, finishing episode four and just barely starting episode five. The show’s message feels clearer now. My initial curiosity is congealing into grim resignation.

Boots isn’t bad. It’s well crafted. The character portrayals and overt construction of masculinity that piqued my curiosity still remain. I can still enjoy picking through and examining them. I can enjoy stripping them for parts.

The show isn’t bad/wrong, the storytelling isn’t bad/wrong, but I like Boots less now.

Why?

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Boots (Netflix 2025)

Posted on by Henry

I’ve seen the first episode of Boots, and I have mixed feelings. 

I’m not sure how to engage with the show. It’s the sometimes funny, sometimes awful story of a young gay man named Cameron Cope who joins the Marines (in 1990, when homosexuality in the armed forces was still criminalized) without really knowing what he was getting himself into. Boots is based on the book The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White (no relation to the best of my knowledge), which is apparently a memoir of White’s own time in the Marines.

I’m unsure about Boots because I’m not sure what Boots is trying to say, or what conclusion it’s reaching towards. Does it have a negative message about being in boot camp as a young gay man in 1990? Does it have a positive message about that?

Is it both?

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The Monuments Men (2014)

Posted on by Henry

I’d been meaning to watch this ever since it came out in 2014. I’m a sucker for WW2 stories, and I like art, so I was curious to see a WW2 story about people dedicated to protecting art (with a basis in history). I wasn’t disappointed, but the movie was an odd experience. 

There’s a quote attributed to François Truffaut, “There’s no such thing as an anti-war film.” The Monuments Men might be the closest I’ve seen a movie come. But it also felt tremendously self-satisfied to me, in a way that eroded that anti-war feel. Let me explain.

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