Last night the six-part docu-reality "La Caserma" kicked off, but for those who have not followed it let's clarify a point immediately, does not reproduce at all the training and educational context of the recruits in an RAV. Is it rather a subject and a cast chosen to find television audiences and perhaps do some analysis on young people?
Interpreting the thinking of many, a context similar to the film was probably expected "365 soldiers at dawn" rather than a variant of Sergeant Major Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, but at least in the first installment, that was not the case. The context was more like a boarding school for wealthy extroverted youth in a substantially program trash.
In the first episode of a reality show aimed at conquering the Z generation (young people) seem to be justified in habits of superficiality, a concept diametrically opposed to military life. However, the selection of the boys could conceal in the production project, the resizing of the behavior of some boys, transmitting a sense of security to the most timid and awkward.
The instructor staff is made up of six technicians but the only real soldier is Deborah Colucci, coach and athlete of the Spartan Race. The others are authoritative civilian professionals, some with a military background like the 9th Regiment's chief instructor Renato Daretti, who in the reality show appears as a good family man in a role like colonel or company commander.
Before moving on to some observations on the episode, there is a consideration that arose after twenty minutes of broadcast. That is the disturbing corridor that separates the 2021 multimedia twenties with duties and respect. Attention, I am not a big stick, far from it, and in fact I relegate the responsibilities of this widespread distance to parents and to a school that does not have the tools to do so, not to young people who, if anything, are the victims.
The 21 young people, including 6 girls, come from a quite different social background and feel more comfortable talking to the instructors even after repeated calls during a mild formal training, absolutely more like the lines we did at school to go to the yard to play. Someone, during the Raising of the flag, simulates the movements of an orchestra conductor, only to be filmed at the end of the ceremony by the comprehensive father of the family, head instructor.
The uniforms used by the boys, with their surnames on the patch, are similar to those worn by the US Army in Vietnam and only the instructors wear the current specification clothing clearly (and fortunately) without stars.
The location is not a barracks but a civil structure located in Levico in the province of Trento and the only military reference, apart from the flag pole placed for the reality show, are the uniform colors of the walls that can be seen filtered by the morning fog. The long-wheelbase green Land Rover published in the media is not military, let's say it "serves to create atmosphere".
Too many martial concepts (but we are at the first episode) have been overcome and guaranteed by too much tolerance towards indiscipline, perceptible with pain by anyone who has done military service.
The realty probably follows precise step increasingly stringent and severe selective. Another detail light years away from a serious training context is that the selection aimed at bringing out the motivation, here at The barracks seems to be unknown.
Before continuing it is good to underline that currently the real military world is supported by training professionals capable of agglomerating and harmonizing the platoons assigned not only disciplinarily but above all responsibly.
The most lively is the sympathetic Italian-Romanian George Ciupilan, an apt choice for indiscipline even if he seems to have hidden talents, while one of the Lapresa twins, in defiance of hygiene standards, commanded corvée cooking, comes to serve the ration with long hair and without a cap.
Among the girls who showed up with heels and suitcases of clothes and make-up, the military kit delivered visibly disarmed them. Those who struck me the most, perhaps because they are far from the concept of Hollywood stars, are the 19-year-old Italian Nigerian Naomi Akano, who immediately adapted to the concept of discipline and Erika Mattina, an LGBT activist who was able to ascertain after her declaration to the chief instructor, that there are no prejudices in the armed forces, but rather rules for everyone, such as not being able to use cell phones or access to PCs, understandably forbidden during the six weeks.
The real mind among the boys is the Pakistani Italian Omar Hussain, a composed and disciplined boy with an IQ above the world average.
There is talk of bullying and attitudes of gratuitous bullying alas real, where it is often the absence of values that degenerates them into outrageous episodes towards institutions and peers, and for many the most immediate medicine would be the restoration of compulsory conscription. True, many aspects not worthy of a civilized country would be filed, but the role of the school in my opinion, has in many ways a main aspect.
If you take apart a good part of today's young people individually, you notice their shortcomings (it happened to me with the driving school) including achronic insecurity. The groups where they take refuge, led by a volcanic pack leader, seem to be the immediate answer to "stay afloat" while subjecting, without conviction, to a despot.
Photos / frames: RAI
