Thursday 2016-08-25

Range 15 written by Billy Jay, Nick Palmisciano and directed by Ross Patterson

The IMDB reviews for this film split into hate vs love, with civilians on one side, and (ex-)military on the other. The film itself gives people a chance to get a glimpse of military culture. Naturally, some people run away screaming....

In terms of raw culture shock, the top-most is the prominence of disabled vets and the seemingly callous jokes: pushing over a soldier with two prosthetic legs, throwing keys to an EOD specialist who has lost her arms, and she spends the next 60 seconds of the scene in the background trying to pick up the keys.

In the best light, they all make fun of each other equally, and are all part of a team. Similar to how you can make fun of your kid brother for not being tall enough, they can poke and anger each other. And just as you'd smack some sense into someone who made fun of your brother, God help the person who makes fun of a disabled vet.

As a commentary on general culture, this film is the result of a crowd-sourced funding campaign, with some additional funding from a US gov't vendor, and two military-only t-shirt companies. It seems we should expect even more niche films in the future....