Moffie: war is hell but the scabs are male model magnificent

REVIEW by Drew Rowsome

13 APR 2021 - photos courtesy of distributor

The basic training is brutal with a savagely sadistic instructor who informs them they are to protect South Africa's women and children from communists. As South Africa was then under apartheid and same-sex anything was illegal, communist includes black sympathizers and moffies. Moffie translates directly as "faggot." The "n" word is also thrown about liberally and horribly. The instructor's tirades occasionally escalate into profane poetry as when a scab collapses and vomits from exhaustion, the instructor barks, "Shove that puke back into your mouth or I'll bite off your nose and spit on you with your own snot." He also nicknames an unfortunate scab "Pimpled Cunt." When two men are discovered in flagrante delicto, they are beaten (offscreen, but we do see the resulting injuries) with pillowcases full of gun parts and shipped off to the dreaded Ward 22. 

No wonder Nicholas represses himself into a walking coma. Being in a catatonic state, the character is hard to root for, impossible not to pity. There are no heroes in Moffie. A night bunked together in the trenches, the many glances (though I'm not sure that anyone without gaydar would register them), and one impulsive but chaste kiss good-bye, are the extent of the gay action. Which is in direct conflict with the camera lingering on the toned chests, perky nipples and bubble butts of the scabs. But that too is a tease: a shirtless volleyball game ends in sudden tragedy, a game of spin the bottle involves fisticuffs instead of making out. The score is equally sturm und drang schizoid as it fluctuates from ominous industrial orchestras tuning, to opera, to pop songs (Seals & Croft's "Summer Breeze" haunts the flashback), to overly dramatic Max Steiner-esque underlines or deceptions. A surge of emotions in direct contrast to Nicholas's adherence to the army's stated motto of "We don't feel anything."

At no point do we get any understanding into the reasoning for the war, and other than from our current agreement that apartheid was morally wrong, that blight on South Africa's history is a horror lurking, except for two brief but chilling and shocking moments that pierce like daggers, in the background. We follow Nicholas through his training, his tentative attempts to experience romance or even friendship, a nightmarish sojourn at the front, and his return home. Throughout water - swimming and showering, though a skinny dipping frolic by the entire corps is wasted in a long shot - has been used as a metaphor for both eroticism and drowning. This culminates in the final scene of Moffie with an ending that is ambiguous, abrupt and anything but cathartic. That is either frustrating or true to life. Or both at once.

Director Oliver Hermanus toys with the homoeroticism inherent in any military maneuvers. The men do "sheep lifts" that are simultaneously intimate and excruciating. Phallic rifles are lovingly cleaned and held erect. Many of the scenarios play out like standard gay porn prologues featuring actors portraying members of the armed services. Some of this is misdirection: when Nicholas first meets and then befriends the equally beautiful but curly haired (so we can tell them apart) Michael Sachs (Matthew Vey) there is an immediate assumption that a love story is commencing. Again a tease. The furtive romance is with Dylan Stassen (Ryan de Villiers) who is dark haired (so that we can tell them apart). Even the bully of the piece becomes a semi-sympathetic compadre who bonds with Nicholas when side by side at urinals (the water metaphor includes taking a leak communally or tragically alone). Through it all, Nicholas/Brummer broods and suffers though always flawlessly coiffed and lit. War is hell but the scabs are male model magnificent.

As a side note, Moffie has been nominated for and won many awards, not all from gay film festivals. More intriguing is that the repression and denial live on, many veterans of the South African army and the war with Angola, Namibia and Zambia, have been very vocal in their disdain for Moffie. According to them, there were NO moffies in the South African army.