Upamanyu Biswas
After years of being homeless, Ellis French, a young black gay man, makes a life-altering decision to apply for the US Marines in the 2022 film, ‘The Inspection.’ Helmed by Elegance Bratton in his feature directorial debut, the film depicts Ellis’ training in the military, where he is subjected to the anger and frustration of his fellow squad leader, Laurence Harvey, and his training instructor, Leland Law, who marginalize and haze him for his sexual orientation. However, he also befriends a few among the group, including a training officer, Rosales, who aids him in his struggles and aspirations to become a Marine.
While the narrative focuses mainly on Ellis’ time with his team members, it also highlights his conflicted relationship with his mother, Inez French. Unable to love her gay son, she kicks him out of the house while he is still a teenager. However, Ellis continues to love his mother, adding complex themes of acceptance and rejection into the mix as he battles within himself to prove that he is worthy of garnering her affection once again. Owing to the deep and sensitive exploration of familial estrangement, miscommunication, and deep-rooted shame associated with one’s sexuality, the genesis of ‘The Inspection’ sparks a worthwhile discussion on whether it is based on a true story.
The Inspection is Rooted in the Director’s Life Experiences
‘The Inspection’ is a partially true story inspired by the experiences and interpersonal relationships of Elegance Bratton, who serves as the writer and director. Using the protagonist, Ellis French, as a viewing lens, Bratton channeled his past into the narrative to reflect the obstacles he faced while growing up. Elements like Ellis’ estranged relationship with his mother due to his sexuality and his decision to enter the army were actually drawn from the filmmaker’s life. However, these aspects were furnished with fictional details that add more layers to the screenplay to broaden its appeal to everybody.
Like Ellis, when Bratton was 16, he was thrown out of his mother’s house because of being gay. For a decade after that, the director had to fend for himself as a homeless person until he applied for the Marine Corps. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said, “I really did believe that I was worthless because of my sexuality. I had no place in the world. As a Black gay kid, it felt like any door I tried to walk through, I was met with some form of hostility or ostracism. I thought, ‘There’s nothing for me in this world. I’m going to die young anyway, like all my friends did, so I’ll die in a uniform.'”
While he was homeless, the director admitted there were times when he was starving on the streets or had no money to get back home. He hoped that by enlisting in the Marines, he would find a new home where he could belong. “I was fortunate enough to have a drill instructor say, ‘Your life is valuable because you have a responsibility to protect the Marine to your left and to your right.’ That responsibility was transformational.” Bratton said. In ‘The Inspection,’ Ellis walks in the same shoes as the director, acting as a vessel for his struggles and endeavors to overcome the challenges he was confronted with in his early years.
The Relationship Between the Director and His Mother Forms the Heart of the Narrative
Although ‘The Inspection’ is largely fictional in its making, Elegance Bratton stated that Ellis’ psychological makeup is entirely based on his own. “This movie is 100% autobiographical when it comes to the hopes, fears, motivations of Ellis French, our lead character, even if it’s not a situation that I’ve personally been through,” he said. “But when it comes to the stuff between him and his mother, that was really, really overwhelming because it’s all out of my life.” At the heart of the narrative, Ellis’ conflicted and emotionally resonant relationship with his mother, Inez, is the driving source of many decisions in his life and is drawn from the real-life relationship of Bratton and his mother, Inell Carol Jones.
When he was still 16, Inell kicked Bratton out of the house because of him being gay, in a similar fashion to Ellis. The director reported that everything he did after that was to gain her approval and to be accepted in her eyes. Sadly, his mother passed away just three days after ‘The Inspection’ was greenlit by A24 in February 2020. The filmmaker felt that he didn’t get the chance to resolve anything as he hadn’t spoken with her in 10 years. “This is why I’m so grateful to Gabrielle Union [Inez French], because she helped to bring my mother back to life for me and provide, on a personal level, some closure that my mother couldn’t provide me in her lifetime. My mom was a very complicated woman — she was the first person to ever love me completely. She was also the first person to ever reject me wholly,” he said.
According to Bratton, his mother was an orphan from the age of ten and gave birth to him when he was still 16. In the film, Inell’s fictional counterpart, Inez, becomes the source of all agency for Ellis, who desperately wants to be in her good graces. Jeremy Pope, who plays Ellis, was of the opinion that by seeking her approval, the protagonist learns to accept himself for who he is. As the fight for love and hate rages in his psyche, he makes the call to join the Marines, where he learns the common humanity connecting everyone regardless of who they are or where they come from.
The Inspection Explores the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Era of the Military
During the 10 years he spent in and out of New York shelters as a homeless person, Elegance Bratton was told by his mother to join the army. After clearing the entrance exams, the director chose to pursue filmmaking and made short instructional videos for the military as a Combat Camera Production Specialist. While he was in the Marines, he admitted that he faced harsh treatment because of his sexuality. In an interview with the Marine Corps Times, he said, “Yeah, it was abusive to me but it was also the place I found my purpose,“ he says. “Just like my mom, it rejected me and embraced me. And in the process, I got to know myself.’
In the film, Ellis French’s marginalized and hostile treatment is partially fictionalized, as Bratton did not get hazed to the degree portrayed in ‘The Inspection.‘ However, the torment subjected to Ellis is based on the accounts of other recruits who were treated the same way because they were gay. It reflects the “Don’t ask, don’t tell“ era of the military when recruits had to hide their sexuality to serve in the army. “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell‘ got its name in the ’90s, but in reality, queer service members were forced to serve in silence for almost 80 years,“ Bratton said. “We wanted to create a visual language that would suggest the shaky ground that queer troops stood on for those 80 years. That way, French would not just be me. French could be representative of multiple generations of people who have gone through this.”
The director employed a hybrid mix of both European and American-style filmmaking while constructing the movie. He cited ‘Full Metal Jacket‘ and ‘An Officer and a Gentleman‘ as inspirations for determining the approach of his narration. Therefore, a catalog of personal and historical sources formed the basis for Elegance Bratton’s script. However, ‘The Inspection’ also ensures that it is not limited to its real-life roots when crafting a story that is universally relatable to anyone who is struggling to find acceptance in their life.
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