Boys State movie

[LineInTheSand]

I don't know how many people here participated in Boys State (or Girls State) but there's a movie on AppleTV+ called Boys State and it brought back some memories for me. It was well done. And while the movie followed Texas Boys State, you find the experience is fairly uniform (I was in Tennessee Boys State).

 

[WT Door]

I read two WSJ reviews on this movie recently. Interestingly enough, one of the young men in the film is now at West Point. I want to watch the film in order to better understand the Boy’s State under workings and culture. The “shock and awe” quote had Army written all over it for me.

Here is part of the review by Joe Morgenstern dated 13 August:

Products of a combative culture, most of the boys seem to be breeding true as pols in training. Never mind that one of them proposes, as a platform plank, defense against alien invaders—from outer space, not other nations. That’s part of the fun of being 17, as most of them are, and away from home for a weeklong taste of adult activity. What’s less amusing is the background cynicism and backroom scheming. One particularly charismatic youngster, a football player who could be mistaken for a movie star in training, remarks, pseudo-sagely, “Sometimes you gotta say what you gotta say to win. Sometimes you can’t win on what you believe in your heart.” Another kid says, almost lasciviously, “We’ll introduce shock and awe. It’ll be awesome.”

 

[OldRetSWO]

My fellow Boys State staffers and I have been discussing this online. Lots for us to absorb from watching another program
Texas is one of the biggest program - we're also big but not that large. Lots of states are in the low hundreds in numbers of boys
but that is a different animal than programs that are up around a thousand per session.

 

[cb7893]

If you're unfamiliar with Rotten Tomatoes, it is a good resource:

Boys State

A raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas come together to build a representative government from the ground up.

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[LineInTheSand]

I think it was well done. The shock and awe quote came from a handicapped kid who wanted to serve in the military but was trying to find something in the civilian world (he lost his legs to meningitis as a toddler). The West Point kid was interesting. I liked him more by the end. I frantically searched for my Boys State pin.

 

[NJDadofDSUSMA2024Hopeful]

My fellow Boys State staffers and I have been discussing this online. Lots for us to absorb from watching another program
Texas is one of the biggest program - we're also big but not that large. Lots of states are in the low hundreds in numbers of boys
but that is a different animal than programs that are up around a thousand per session.

Is it like watching Friday Night Tykes on Netflix about Texas youth football and then comparing to your own youth football programs ?
My boys and I started it but didn’t have time to finish. Will do so this weekend as it looked very engaging. DS1 was too old by the time we even Heard of Boys State. DS2 is in 9th grade and may apply as a junior.

 

[Day-Tripper]

My eldest DS went to Boys State around 8 years ago. My memory is that he was nominated by his teachers/coaches. There was no application process, per se. Maybe some one else knows more about the process than I.

 

[Day-Tripper]

I read two WSJ reviews on this movie recently. Interestingly enough, one of the young men in the film is now at West Point. I want to watch the film in order to better understand the Boy’s State under workings and culture. The “shock and awe” quote had Army written all over it for me.

Here is part of the review by Joe Morgenstern dated 13 August:

Products of a combative culture, most of the boys seem to be breeding true as pols in training. Never mind that one of them proposes, as a platform plank, defense against alien invaders—from outer space, not other nations. That’s part of the fun of being 17, as most of them are, and away from home for a weeklong taste of adult activity. What’s less amusing is the background cynicism and backroom scheming. One particularly charismatic youngster, a football player who could be mistaken for a movie star in training, remarks, pseudo-sagely, “Sometimes you gotta say what you gotta say to win. Sometimes you can’t win on what you believe in your heart.” Another kid says, almost lasciviously, “We’ll introduce shock and awe. It’ll be awesome.”

I must say I was dissapointed about the greater emphasis on winning political elections, at any cost, over the teaching of civics, i.e. how to operate a functioning government using compromise over partisanship. A laboratory for government disfunction. The Hispanic & black kids were noticeably uncomfortable with the extremism being exhibited by their whiter, more wealthy, fellow Boys Staters. Maybe it's a Texas thing because when my eldest DS went to Boys State there wasn't so much emphasis on gurs & abortion, but more on the role of being a responsible citizen & how local, state & federal government works (or should work).

 

[LineInTheSand]

Well, that's what it kind of became when I went through it too, 19 years ago. I don't remember who won my year, but I do remember a kid peeing in a cup and pouring it on another kids face while he slept, and then the same kid peeing on the same kid's pillow the next night. The pee kid was kicked out.

I ran into him later that year at the congressional nomination function. I don't think he remembered me. He did say "West Point is Army, right?"

Now he's a general (jut kidding, I have no idea what happened to him).

We did learn stuff too. It's the first time I really started to consider the Coast Guard Academy. The attacks on 9/11 would solidify that for me, but the seed was planted at Tennessee Boys State.