WATCH: Things get homoerotic on the high-seas in this doc about pirate-fighting mercenaries
Dogwatch might not sound like the type of film we’d typically cover on Queerty. The Greek documentary follows the lives of three mercenaries hired to protect shipping vessels as they travel near the Somali coastline, a dangerous area where pirate attacks frequently occurred.
Or, at least, they used to.But, like aggressively carnal Beau Travail or even Jarhead (a movie as obsessed with Jake Gyllenhaal’s body as we are) before it, Dogwatch is a film that leans into the unspoken yet present sensuality and intimacy that often arises in these hyper-masculine spaces.Subscribe to our daily newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Men in close quarters.
Isolation. Vulnerability. Long, lingering shots of the male form—at peak physical fitness, no less. Dogwatch has all the makings of homoerotic cinema.From filmmaker Gregoris Rentis, the documentary takes its name from the maritime term, wherein someone is tasked to keep watch and guard a ship for a specific amount of time (the film’s Greek title, “Vardia,” translates to “shift).In this case, the shift is taken on by three Greek men at different points in their lives and careers.
Each with some form of military background, they’ve signed on as private contract security guards for ships passing through “High Risk Areas” at sea.In the early 2000s, these areas were overrun with pirate attacks—especially off the coast of Somalia—but, in more recent years, that threat has decreased significantly.
