HOW'D ‘PURPLE HEARTS’ (NETFLIX) GET PERMISSION TO FILM AT CAMP PENDLETON?

This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Purple Hearts is the new Netflix romantic drama out right now. It’s your typical marriage-for-convenience story line. A Marine who needs BAH meets a girl who needs healthcare, and, you guessed it, they get hitched! We do NOT recommend you try this at home, as criminal charges could possibly be incurred. That’s what makes the Purple Hearts movie being filmed on a military base in California ironic and that much more interesting. Let’s get into how they did it.

”Purple Hearts” Plot

The Purple Hearts Netflix trailer showcases Disney star Sophia Carson and her co-lead Nicholas Galantine reading aloud the letters they wrote to one another. They tell each other about themselves because even though they’re legally married, they’re also strangers. Sophia plays Cassie, a singer who has Type 1 diabetes and high medical bills. Nicholas plays Luke, a recovering addict-turned-Marine with an outstanding debt to his former dealer. Although their marriage started out as a financial agreement, their efforts to fool Uncle Sam turn into real feelings, especially after Luke gets injured. In a drastic turn of events, Cassie becomes Luke’s caretaker, and their relationship takes on a more serious form. This movie is for all the romance lovers who dream about the pretend relationship trope.

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"Purple Hearts" Movie Cast Takes Over Camp Pendleton

The Purple Hearts movie trailer also shows a glimpse of the Camp Pendleton base’s welcome sign. We found it curious, like others, that the Marine Corps would allow a movie based on a Marine participating in an illegal sham marriage to film on their base. Well,

SPOILER ALERT

, the Marine Corps does eventually find out about Luke and Cassie’s marriage fraud, and the consequences are not light. Luke is stripped of everything and is sentenced to time in prison, while Cassie finally lives out her rockstar dream. They still get their happily ever after in the end, but needless to say, marriage fraud is far from encouraged by the movie Purple Hearts. It's also true that these arrangements do happen in real life. The very movie itself was inspired by an executive at Alloy Entertainment listening to a podcast about military marriages for convenience. Sham marriages are a reality for some, though they probably don’t end in a whirlwind romance. Director Allen Rosenbaum worked with military adviser and Navy Veteran James Dever to get the Netflix Purple Hearts movie filmed on base. Dever retired from the service after 25 years and went on to advise some of Hollywood’s top movies, like American Sniper, Captain America: Civil War, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Jarhead, to just name a few. When a film crew desires to work on a military base, their first job is to contact the DoD, or Department of Defense. The DoD has been working directly with Hollywood for almost 100 years. Their goal is to make sure military stories are told accurately and prevent sensitive information from being disclosed. In an interview with Military.com, Director Rosenbaum shares, “If someone lives in California, they’ve driven by that stretch of land near Pendleton all the time, but most people have no understanding of what's behind the gates. I really felt like it would be exciting for the audience to follow our lead character through those gates, and to really see inside.” Their first proposition to Camp Pendleton was rejected, but after James Dever joined the team and added his touch to the script, they received permission to film. In return, they made sure to depict a balanced view of the Marines they cast. They scored their ideal location for the price of nothing. “We were just very lucky, because we had so many people receptive to letting us use locations. Pendleton was free. A lot of our locations had a lot of bang for their buck,” Rosenbaum says. Camp Pendleton being one of the movie’s locations truly adds to the believability of the story line. The Soldiers you see on base are actual Marines who were stationed there at the time of filming. It’s incredible that the recording crew could share that experience, and knowing what went into the filming of Purple Hearts lets us appreciate its creation a little more.

Watch the "Purple Hearts" Movie 2022

The Purple Hearts Netflix movie is already in the top 10 Netflix movies in the U.S. It’s two hours and two minutes long with a TV-14 rating. So far, fans have been crying their eyes out, so if you’re looking for a cheesy, emotional rollercoaster, this is exactly what you need in your movie lineup.

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