Margarita Kirilkina


            The film Paratroopers shows us hard physical and psychological conditions in Israeli
army. Soldiers have to be desciplinate and follow strict instructions. When such a magrinal person
appears in a company he becomes  an object of ridicule and punishment both for the soldiers and for
commanders. Moreover commanders punishes the whole company for the one's offense provoking violence
to him from the whole group. But if even after that he is not able to be as others exemplary man,
he is "a dead soldier. We tried to make a soldier from him, but it was impossible, and now he is a
dead soldier, dead person" - as commander Yari says became drunk.

            In Paratroopers this person - is Weismann and in the film plot he really dies. His
death as we can suppose was not accidental. He was a man who was trying to protest openly:
listening music when soldiers have to listen important things their commander says, resisting while
trainings, sleeping outside the camp - doing everything what a proper soldier don't do. His death
seemed also as a form of protest, and this protest worked at least for a while when everyone in a
company took his side following Weismann Moshe and commander started to suffer. It was really him
who killed the soldier but more in psychological way not even allowing to him to go to
psychological department, forcing him to follow the others. Weismann was manipulated by him to say
that he want to stay in a company and become a paratrooper. So Weismann was caught to the trap. The
only one way for him to get out was to make suicide as a revenge.

            The film could be relevant to current audience also, because it raises a problems of
masculinity stereotypes which still existing in nowadays discourse. In Paratroopers we see an
exemplary men: strong, brave and able to seize every woman. If somebody is not able to follow this
character, everyone start to humiliate him, also sexually like we see in a scene in a shower where
other soldiers start to behave to Weismann as to a woman who represents in this film just as a
sexual object.