Let’s not forget *Heartbreak Ridge *with Clint Eastwood. That’s a good one.
A bad one outside the aforementioned not serious movies would be *In The Army Now *with the ubiqutous Pauly Shore. Complete dreck.
It’s awfully, awfully old. So old that the B-17s look like this, and about the only “treatment” the cadets get is being contemptuously called “Mister.”
We had Dirtbags and Clowns, and were collectively Turds. We also looked like hot garbage, or stunk like ass, stunk like hot ass. We were also assclowns. I never thought I’d forget that stuff, but I guess it fades after a while. Thanks Raguleader for helping stir some up.
We also stood at attention forever while our Chief gave us that night’s lecture and played Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” on loop.
I’m glad you brought up the issue of free time. You have no free time in basic training. That’s the single biggest flaw in all movie and TV depictions of basic training. In real life, you are busy approximately eighteen hours a day. If you’re lucky, you’ll get six hours to sleep, but you sure can’t expect that.
Only in the final days of basic may you get a little bit of free time.
I can’t speak to military school, though.
Tigerland. Great movie that was largely overlooked.