Grab your ribbon sticks and enlist: CADET KELLY WANTS YOU!

Rating: 🎖🎖🎖🎖
[TRAILER]

Disney+ is here, which means that people are streaming all of their old favorites and revisiting the movies and shows that shaped their childhood. Joining the 10+ million subscribers is my boyfriend, Brody, and by extension, me. After skimming through some Marvel and Star Wars content, I convinced Brody to let me select one of my favorite Disney Channel Original Movies, Cadet Kelly, starring Disney Channel cornerstone Hilary Duff. Brody had never seen it, and I enjoyed the movie itself as much as I did live-tweeting his reactions.

At one point, though, Brody’s commentary turned dark. “I am so glad that this is a movie about teens,” he said, “because otherwise, the whole movie would be about them getting deployed to Iraq.” My jaw dropped. I paused the movie. We looked up when the film came out: March 8, 2002. This film, glorifying military school, came out almost exactly six months after September 11, 2001. What started as an evening of silly fun took a turn as I wondered aloud, “Is Cadet Kelly post-9/11 military propaganda?”

Through this lens, Cadet Kelly becomes more than just a romp in the mud pit: Kelly teaches us the value of structure, tradition, and ribbon dancing, all within the context of military school, at which her stepfather is the commandant. The movie presents military norms and vocabulary with no explanation, normalizing the culture, which quickly became ubiquitous as many Americans enlisted in preparation for the Iraq War. I mainly remember watching this as a tween and thinking it looked like so much fun to learn to rappel and wear unflattering khaki outfits; I began to wonder if my peers felt the same way.

I polled other women in my life and age group. Unfortunately, very few of them had personal experience supporting my theory.

I only know one woman who is my age and served in the military. I sought her perspective.

Closer, but no luck. I then turned to the internet—who funded this film? When did production begin? Did military school enrollment spike after 9/11, and specifically after March 8, 2002, the film’s premiere date? There’s very little information to back up my theory, but you can’t argue with the timeline. 

Unlike its predecessors (Top Gun, Red Dawn, The Green Berets), there’s no clear paper trail, nor is there explicit imagery or even reference to actual warfare. Nevertheless, the film pushes tradition, patriotism, and the ecstasy of mastering an obstacle course while a slightly older teen screams at you. When Kelly finally makes the drill team and gets the opportunity to spin those plastic rifles around, she tenderly touches her new uniform with the gravitas of a lover’s face. Much has been written about the film’s homoerotic undertones, but the more obvious love story here (even aside from Kelly’s flirtations with Brad) is the blossoming affection between formerly free-spirit Kelly and the rigidity of the military.

Although I haven’t found any evidence (anecdotal or concrete), I maintain that this delightfully mediocre film has an ulterior motive, and I would love your input. Please tweet your thoughts and opinions at @kaaathyyy (after reading the rest of my transcription of Brody’s commentary) or leave a comment below!