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A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Wiseman’s first institutional study shares Basic Training’s unsentimental, patient observation of authority shaping individual lives, with no explanatory narration to soften its confrontations.
02
Why this pick
Another sharply observed Wiseman portrait of an American institution, following the everyday rules, rituals, pressure, and small negotiations through which young people are disciplined.
03
Why this pick
Its fly-on-the-wall approach and attention to systems under strain make it a close companion: conversations and routines gradually reveal the human texture beneath an imposing institution.
04
Why this pick
For Basic Training’s fascination with bureaucracy and power, this extended observation of a welfare office offers similarly revealing encounters between citizens, workers, and an overburdened system.
05
Why this pick
This later Wiseman work keeps the observational breadth and institutional curiosity of Basic Training, letting residents, staff, meetings, and daily frictions build a complex social portrait.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
Shot during the summer of 1970 at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Frederick Wiseman’s film Basic Training focuses on a group of men going through infantry training, showing how they are turned from civilians into soldiers. As well as being a unique portrait of the US army at work, the film is also a fascinating snapshot of a time and place at a defining moment in American history.
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