Documenting Icons - Soldier Girls

I am a big fan of Nick Broomfields work and although this is quite old its definetly worth a look.

i would have given this 0 stars but 1 was the lowest i could go... the sound is almost inaudible even with the volume up full.. it is set in the 70's & basically is all about girls at an army camp - & thats it.. no plot, no direction - Just BORING!!

Dont rent this rubbish - a waste of an hour...

'Soldier Girls' was old school for me and likely to prove too dated for anyone new to the documentary genre. The director-in-absentia format is unusual these days, and left me feeling as if I'd been left to wander aimlessly round an army barracks, spying on the Great American Farce. Either this was Broomfield's preferred style at the time of making or he was in fact hiding, cringing at the way 2 or 3 sergeants performed and played up to the camera while summarily failing in their duty to lead and inspire their new recruits. The girl soldiers themselves fell into 2 distinct camps; those who could not recall how they even got into this in the first place but were still kind of hanging around anyway, since they had no more idea how to get out; and those who 'went native', imitating their militarily deranged superiors to the best of their misguided juvenile abilities. No doubt Broomfield realised early on that any effort on his part to wring some kind of self-awareness or analysis out of the cast would be wasted, as Earth has not yet made contact with Planet Gung-Ho, or for that matter Planet Stupid. This film is not going to stick a firework under your seat but it will probably make you think, 'plus ca change'; no doubt women are still being ostensibly trained by the same kind of folk using the same kind of methods...a few rounds of arbitrary trench-digging in the dark and they'll be forwarded to drive trucks over bombs in Iraq. Simultaneously mundane and terrifying, if you can overcome your own sniggering at the 1970s-ness of it all.

Would have apprecited it more on first release but the format and subject matter have been well covered since, through no fault of its own. Still worth a look for Broomfield fans and the DVD extras with more recent interviews are amusing