Soldier’s Girl (2003)

Initial Attraction: Lee Pace/ Trans-gender story


Thoughts: Once you get away from all the military bullshit and watch Barry interact with Miss Calpernia, it feels like any other love story.

Lee Pace’s portrayal of Calpernia Adams is not only convincing, but riveting, and emotional. It is easy to see why this film jump-started his career and got him a Golden Globe nomination.

Aside from Pace’s deepness in his voice he really does look and act like a woman (he lost an astonishing 25 pounds for the role). It really is admirable to see how committed he was to this role and the powerful and tragic (true) story behind it.

I admit that I am only vaguely familiar with the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and I by no means believe that this story speaks for the attitude of the military or it’s personnel, but I do not understand where such intense hatred stemmed from in Glover and the rest of the soldiers who ridiculed Barry. He was not making any sexual advances on any of the other soldiers and I don’t think he even considered himself to be homosexual. He kept to himself and tried as hard as he could to resist confrontation, it sounds like those military boys were looking for trouble.

Barry was the only one who showed Glover any kindness and yet he sides with Fisher (a very inconsistent character who I didn’t like from the beginning) As soon as Fisher pulled out that baseball bat I knew Barry was going to die.

This movie went quickly from cute to disturbing.

Surprises: As Calpernia is attempting to “woo” Barry he/she is showing a lot of cleavage and at first I’m like “okay they just put a bra on him and then stuffed it”…no. Completely topless, those ta ta’s look so realistic I was like “Did Lee Pace grow boobs for this role too?” Congratulations to the make-up department, those were some amazing prosthetic breasts…WOW! I had to constantly remind myself that I’m an adult watching a serious film to keep from giggling.

The murder scene was so disturbing and graphic it was literally haunting me in my sleep.

Disappointments: I get that soldiers are real “tough guys” and they have a lot of pent up adrenaline and testosterone and all that, but really with the profanity? Isn’t profanity more effective when it’s used sparingly? How many variations of the F-word can you use in one sentence? These guys will give you a run for your f*ck*ng money…

Watch-ability: This is a very powerful story that is culturally relevant and eye opening to people who don’t know anything about transgenders and what they go through. Calpernia Adams is a very important and admirable figure.

Plus…Lee Pace is still dead sexy even as a woman : )

The Real Calpernia Adams with Lee Pace (notice the breasts!)