I Want to Be a Soldier (2010)

Alex, an eight-year-old boy, seems to have a macabre fascination for violent images that he sees on television. After his two brothers are born, he feels lonely, and he makes up two ... See full summary »

Director:

Christian Molina

Writers:

Cuca Canals, Christian Molina

Stars:

Fergus Riordan, Cameron Antrobus, Andrew Tarbet

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Fergus Riordan	...	Alex
Cameron Antrobus	...	David (as Cameron George Antrobus)
Andrew Tarbet	...	Richard (Alex's father)
Josephine Barnes	...	Paula
Luke Denton	...	Zac
Ben Temple	...	Captain Harry / Sergeant John Cluster
Jo Kelly	...	Amy (Alex's mother)
Thomas Riordan	...	Eric (Max's brother)
Danny Glover	...	School Director
Cassandra Gava	...	Art teacher
Robert Englund	...	Psychologist
Laura Fabregat	...	Helene (2 years)
Alejandro Gómez	...	Victor (2 years) (as Alejandro Gomez)
Marc Medina	...	Alex (2 years)
Joan Hostench Martínez	...	Max

Storyline

Alex, an eight-year-old boy, seems to have a macabre fascination for violent images that he sees on television. After his two brothers are born, he feels lonely, and he makes up two imaginary friends. Hurt and betrayed, he blackmails his father to get a television for his room. Through television, he discovers the violence of wars, and he is left fascinated.

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Taglines:

Is your family a safe environment?

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Genres:

Drama

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User Reviews

TV is bad: the movie

"I want to be a soldier" is a wonderful movie for all the wrong reasons. The general plot follows the vicissitudes of Alex; he is a child who wanted to be an astronaut and had an astronaut imaginary friend, up until his parents bought him his own TV. Since the TV shows lots of violent acts like shootings, murders and war movies, Alex is now a violent 10-year-old who wants to be a soldier (and has a US officer as his new imaginary friend).

The direction is quite poor in and of itself. A good portion of the movie consists of the main character monologuing about being a soldier so he can kill people, torture prisoners, make Nazi-like experiments on his victims, become a dictator and so on, while a collage of violent stock footage runs on the screen. This happens quite often, too, and I think makes at least 25-30% of the whole movie.

The characters are about as stereotyped as possible, what with Alex hanging around with the geeky kid when he's "good" and then with some bullies who smoke and have knifes after he switches over to the "bad" side. Alex's family is about as cliché as possible, with the mother being obsessed with the newborn twins, the father having an affair and both dismissing their kid's behavior as "a phase".

The "imaginary friend" concept is sort of nice and adds an interesting layer to the movie as both friends (astronaut and officer) are played by the same actor, and they switch roles depending on the phase Alex is currently in. It's not enough to save the movie from its silliness, though.

"I want to be a soldier" is quite enjoyable to watch for its "so bad it's good" wackiness and its unending stream of dumb plot devices that ultimately end up in Danny Glover stating how "TV is evil". However, it's far from a good movie if taken seriously. I can only suggest you rent this film if you're smashed and/or in for a laugh with some friends.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Spain]

Country:

Spain Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 October 2011 (Italy)

Also Known As:

I Want to Be a Soldier

Filming Locations:

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$73,293

Company Credits

Production Co:

Black Flag, Canonigo Films, Produzione Straordinaria

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Fujicolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1