Paolo Tizón’s observational documentary Night Has Come follows a group of young recruits who enlisted in the Peruvian military as they go through a very demanding boot camp. The very first image is looking out the back of an airplane as the soldiers-in-training prepare to jump out to parachute down. The grueling training consists of marching and practicing gunfire at night, rigorous sit-ups with a large log at night, getting drenched with water to train for combat in the rain, getting shot at on a training course by what appears to be live ammo, and play-acting to patch up a soldier with a gunshot wound to the chest.
All of this is in preparation for the soldiers to go to the VRAEM region. VRAEM is one of the major areas of coca production and coca is the plant cocaine is made from. Peru now produces more cocaine than any other country (BBC News). At one point the soldiers’ superior talks about having PTSD after returning from VRAEM, where a loud boom caused him to drop to the floor, saying how his wife wanted to divorce him. More details on VRAEM could have been set up better with a prologue, discussions throughout, or even video footage from the area.
Shot in 4:3 ratio, much of Tizón’s documentary is in close ups that provides an intimate feel and look into the lives of these Peruvian soldiers. Soldier Michael Puglisevich (#36) discusses how his mom doesn’t want to bury her son and he told her it’s the cycle of life. Another soldier discusses how he wants to make his father proud of having a military son, and another soldier discusses how his ex-girlfriend is his motivation and when he feels like he wants to quit, he takes it one week at a time.
At times though, the close up style of filmmaking can be a detriment to understanding what is going on in the scene, instead of using more medium and long shots to capture what the soldiers are doing. There are scenes at night where the sound slowly fades out and the soldiers are in the dark except the occasional number on their helmets and a flashlight shining on their faces. In another scene, there’s a very long training sequence in pitch black, and only marching, chants and diving in to the water is heard until finally a head pops out. There are also mundane scenes like one soldier just seemingly folding in a parachute and then putting a rock inside.
The pacing can seem slow at times making it difficult to get a grasp on the subjects. It's also difficult to differentiate the soldiers because they aren't introduced by character name title cards nor distinguished enough throughout. This observational quality can become tedious of just observing them in their daily lives of training without much of a story outside of that.
In many scenes the discussions don’t really move the story along. Some of the dialogue isn't even translated in subtitles, one subtitle reads, “Get ouf of the water,” instead of "get out,” so it seems as though the subtitles may have missed a quality control check.
Despite reservations in the filmmaking, Night Has Come does have qualities to admire, like showing a close up look at boot camp training rarely seen in a documentary, as well as exploring Peruvian culture and the military. Night has Come won the FIPRESCI Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic), Best Direction at Málaga Film Festival (Spain) and screened at several festivals around the world including: Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), Havana International Film Festival (Cuba), MoMA Doc Fortnight (New York), and Morelia International Film Festival (Mexico). Optional Purchase.
How could Night Has Come be utilized in class courses?
Night Has Come could be screened in classes on politics, the military, current events, or studies on Peru and Latin America. The documentary could be a launching point for a research project into the VRAEM to understand the region better and investigate what the soldiers accomplish after their training when they are assigned there.
EPF Media regularly publishes useful Press Kits and Study Guides for their films, so keep an eye out for those for Night Has Come on their website.
How could Night Has Come fit into a series of screenings?
There are very few documentaries that cover boot camp military training. Night Has Come could be a good companion piece programmed with other narrative films that tackle boot camp. It could fit in a series of films that include Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, Taylor Hackford’s An Officer and A Gentleman, Ivan Reitman’s Stripes and Ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane, to provide a very realistic look at boot camp against the more stylized versions in narrative films.
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